


let's sit back and watch the bed burn

by lucasashtons



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, M/M, Minor Character Death, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:31:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3791626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucasashtons/pseuds/lucasashtons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You guys must have missed the day where they told you not to marry the enemy I’m guessing?”</p><p>or Luke and Ashton are assassins assigned to take each other out by their rival agencies</p>
            </blockquote>





	let's sit back and watch the bed burn

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fic three months ago, knowing there was a lot of people on tumblr wondering why no one had written an assassins fic. This, combined with me watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith far too many times and endlessly watching my brother play Assassins Creed, is what came of that. 
> 
> This is also a late birthday present for the always wonderful [ Pary](mpregashton.tumblr.com). Love you sweetie, and I hope that you loved this fic :)
> 
> 8tracks for this fic [ here](http://8tracks.com/lucasashtons/we-re-gonna-die)

There’s a warm mouth against Luke’s, their tongues flickering as he struggles to unbutton the white dress shirt that’s clinging to their body. His usually nimble fingers are shaking as they undo button after button before finally giving up, tearing the shirt apart in the front in an effort to remove it from the tan skin he longs to suck deep bruises into. Buttons pop off and fly off towards some random direction but he can’t bring himself to care right now, especially now that the warm mouth has removed itself from his and is now sucking harshly at his neck.

He needs more.

“Enough with the teasing,” he says, tilting his head back further into the pillow underneath him as they continue to nip at his neck. “I need you to get inside me.”

There’s a chuckle against his neck as the stranger lifts their head up, their curls hanging in their face as they stare into his blue eyes. “Need I stretch you out or is foreplay not your thing?” It’s said with a husky voice, one that sends a rush clear down to his dick. This guy is a cocky son of a bitch, one that seems to have him wrapped around his finger already and they’ve yet to even remove all of their clothing.

“Just get my fucking pants off and stretch me, alright?” He bites back, causing the curly haired boy to laugh at him in return. Fingers lightly trace down his bare torso, skimming lightly across his nipples and making him arch his back. A smirk appears on the curly haired guy’s face at the reaction as he continues to slowly trail his fingers further down.

Casual sex was something Luke tended to do on his missions. It was mostly people that were his targets, people that he’d seduce into his bed in order to get the information he needed or get them into his hotel room for him to eliminate them, but this person wasn’t a target. They actually were a complete stranger he’d just happened to come across as he was escaping Colombian police, having taken refuge in a nearby hotel. There was still fresh blood from his arm, a bullet having grazed it when he’d woven through the city streets. He managed to clean the wound and bandage it before running again, and he’s pretty sure Calum is going to murder him when he gets back to the agency, but for right now he’s sure he’s okay.

When he had burst through the doors of the hotel, they had locked eyes immediately.

He’d been standing at the hotel bar, leaning against it as he spoke to the bartender. There was a half empty glass in his hand, filled with a clear liquid that Luke could only assume was vodka. An odd choice of drink, considering he was pretty sure it was only two o clock in the afternoon, an odd time for anyone to be drinking honestly. The minute he’d burst through the door the guy’s attention had been torn from the bartender and towards him, his face showing interest and something Luke could only interpret as lust.

As if a moth to a flame, Luke casually strode over to the bar, requesting a beer before turning his body towards the stranger. “Traveling alone?” he asks, attempting to start a casual conversation with them. He finds himself biting his lip at the sight of the honey blond curls that were resting atop of the man’s head, the hazel eyes that still held lust in them as they sipped their drink. This stranger enticed him.

A nod. “Why, looking for some company?” Australian, definitely Australian, not to mention the seduction dripping off of those words. The request makes Luke smirk, biting at the lip ring on his bottom lip. He watches the stranger’s hazel eyes gaze down at the action and it’s then that Luke decides that he can wait to find cover from the people after him, he needs this guy in his bed right now.

He opens his mouth to request they head upstairs but it’s then that the police are busting through the doors, guns held up and searching. Luke turns his attention away from them, hoping they won’t notice him from where he’s resting against the bar. The sudden change in his demeanor doesn’t go undetected by the stranger, who is now raising an eyebrow at him. “After you?”

Luke doesn’t answer, keeping his head down low while acting casual. The police began asking questions in Spanish, Luke picking up one of them as, “Traveling alone?” Of course, it’s an easier way to find him if he’s unaccompanied. He lifts his head up to face the stranger when he is suddenly bringing a hand up to his face, pulling it towards him and pressing their lips together in a rough kiss. Luke yelps at the sudden movement but doesn’t hesitate to return the favor, moving his lips against the rough ones of the strangers. He hears the police moving around the lobby, searching and shouting things in Spanish. The stranger suddenly grips the back of his head, pulling him closer to him and putting an arm around his waist so their bodies are now touching.

The sounds of the police have now faded, making him now pull away from the man. The kiss is still lingering on Luke’s lips as the stranger stares at him with lust in his eyes once again, hand still on the back of Luke’s head. “You’re welcome,” he whispers, sending him a wink. “Seemed to be in a bit of a situation, they after you?”

He debates telling the guy a complete lie, not knowing what would happen if he tells him the truth. It’s all too strange that the guy would so willing to hide him from the cops, but after six years Luke has found it a little hard to put his trust in anyone.

“I figured from the bleeding arm that you probably got into an altercation,” he continues, placing his glass down on the bar and shaking his head at the bartender. “Cops tried to break it up, guy, or girl, nicked you with a knife and or the cops shot at you to stop and you got grazed.” Luke raises an eyebrow at the details and the stranger shrugs. “Just thinking of the possibilities. So, what’s the story?”

The bartender sets his bottle of beer down, giving him a grin before walking off towards a new customer. Luke grabs the bottle by the neck and takes a long drink before telling the stranger, “Oddly enough, you got it right. Got into it a few blocks down at one of the markets, cops came to break it up. I’m a little stubborn, wouldn’t leave it, cops ended up grazing me when I tried to run.”

He expects to scare the guy away, but instead he gets him to chuckle. The stranger bites at his bottom lip while his eyes flicker back and forth between Luke’s bottom lip and his eyes. “So you’re a criminal?” He steps closer, something Luke didn’t even find possible, his breath on Luke’s lips. Luke gives him a light shrug before backing away to take another swing of his beer.

“I wouldn’t say that,” He tells him, putting the empty bottle on the bar. “Unless, that is, you are into that sort of thing. If that’s the case, well, I can tell you that isn’t even the worst thing I’ve done.” He’s pushing it, he knows he is, but he wants to keep that lustful look in the guy’s eyes. It’s sexy, inviting. He’s counting on bringing him upstairs that’s a fact.

He doesn’t expect the giggle that comes out of the stranger’s mouth, the sound making him laugh as well. “Well you dangerous criminal, how about we head to your room and talk about those terrible things?” There’s a seductive smirk on his lips and Luke quickly pulls his money out and slaps it onto the bar before taking the guy’s hand and dragging him up to his room.

That’s what led him to here, back against his hotel bed as he lets a complete stranger pleasure him.

His jeans are being pulled down agonizingly slow and Luke feels like he’s going to scream at the stranger for all of this teasing. He pulls himself up from the bed and shoves his jeans the rest of the way down, pushing them off of the bed and onto the floor before quickly going for the guy’s belt. He lets out a small laugh as Luke removes the belt quickly and shoves his jeans to the floor as well, leaving the two of them in their underwear. “Quite eager are we?” he questions and Luke wants to smack that smirk off of his face.

“Shut up and fuck me.” Luke tells him, making the guy laugh again as he removes Luke’s boxers. While Luke expects him to lube up his fingers and get to work, he’s surprised when the stranger flips him over, making Luke rest on his stomach. He’s about to question what the guy is doing when he suddenly feels something glide over his entrance and he lets out an elicit gasp.

The stranger glances up at him, blinking innocently. “Would you like it if I eat you out?”

Luke wouldn’t just like it if the stranger did that, he’d fucking  _love_ it. He gives him a quick nod before he’s instructed to bend his knees a little, ass in the air. He finds himself trusting this stranger, something that Luke always has a hard time doing. He’s not one to put faith into people he’s only just met but he finds himself agreeing this guy’s wishes.

He doesn’t even know the guy’s name.

He feels something warm and wet against his entrance, his eyes now blown wide at the sensation. He feels large hands holding him by his waist, long fingers splaying themselves across his hips as the stranger’s tongue continues to circle the rim of his hole gently. His body is shaking at the sensation, another gasp escaping his lips as his tongue starts to lick in and out of him and  _wow_ , Luke wishes he could bite into the pillows right now because he’s about to scream at how amazing this feels. There’s a tingle in stomach, a burning feel as his orgasm rises. His cock rubs against his stomach slightly, coating his stomach in pre come. He needs release, and he needs it now.

“Can you,  _fuck,_ jerk me off?” Luke begs, trying to look back at the stranger but he can’t seem to get a good look at him before the guy continues to lick his inner walls. He needs someone to touch him, someone to release his cock from the aching feeling.

“This not enough for you?” The stranger replies, giving Luke a rough lick on his hole and making him gasp. “You need me to get you off?”

Luke nods, his back arching a little as the stranger’s tongue enters him once again. “P-please.”

There’s a chuckle from behind him before there’s another deep plunge into his hole and this time he’s crying out, a loud moan erupting from his lips. As soon as the noise has been released he feels a warm hand wrap around him, giving him a few pumps before he’s spilling his seed out onto the sheets of the hotel bed.

There’s a laugh from behind him that brings him back from his minute of bliss. “Already? I haven’t even fingered you yet.” He turns himself around to face the guy, his mouth wet with spit, lips red and Luke swears he’s never seen someone so beautiful before.

“Then what are you waiting for?” He says, wiggling his ass teasingly. The stranger laughs, reaching for his jeans to pull out a small bottle of lube. He quickly squeezes out a good amount on his fingers before pressing the pads of his fingers against Luke’s entrance. Luke shivers at the cool sensation of the lube, having been far too long since he’s been on the receiving end of sex. It feels good, there is no denying that.  

Before the guy slips a finger in, he leans down to Luke’s ear and whispers, “Ashton.”

Luke barely manages to rasp out his name in reply before there’s a sudden pressure against his entrance, a long finger slowly pushing into him. He grips the sheets tightly as Ashton curls his finger before adding another, stretching him more and more. He quickly reaches for his dick, beginning to pump himself again. He’s growing hard again, elicit gasps coming from his mouth as Ashton’s fingers stretch him, curling around his walls.

“Ready?” Ashton rasps at him, Luke turning to look at him. His curls are sticking to his forehead from the sweat, he looks  _beautiful._ He nods, and the minute Ashton removes his fingers he’s flipping them over, his back hitting the sheets. He pulls Ashton’s head down to press a rough kiss to his lips, their tongues swirling against each other before pulling away, a string of spit connected to their lips. He watches as Ashton’s pupils are blown and he’s now lining himself up with Luke’s entrance, hands curling over Luke’s hips. Luke gives him a quick nod before the tip of his dick is pressing against his hole. The sudden pressure makes him gasp, and pretty soon Ashton’s completely filling him.

“ _Fuck,”_ Luke breathes, moving his legs to wrap around Ashton’s waist. “ _M-move.”_ He requests it in a gasp before it’s swallowed by Ashton’s mouth, his moans being swallowed as Ashton’s pace begins to pick up. There’s a steady rhythm in his hips as he rocks back and forth inside of him, Luke’s hands releasing their grip on the sheets to fly to Ashton’s back, nails digging into the tan skin as the trusts pick up. The familiar coil has returned to Luke’s stomach as the thrust become more and more rough, but he’s more focused on Ashton’s tongue exploring his mouth, tasting every part of it.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Ashton pants into his mouth as he continues to buck his hips. There’s a smirk on his face as Luke cries out his name brokenly, a chorus of  _YesYesYes_ spilling from his mouth. This seems to make Ashton happy, as he grips onto Luke’s hips tighter.

The heat within Luke’s stomach is starting to become overpowering and he swears he’s going to burst at any moment. Ashton’s movements have started to slow, though he’s still rocking at a steady pace that’s enough to make him flip them around, Ashton now against the pillows while Luke sits on his thighs, Ashton still inside of him as he rotates his hips. He loves the way Ashton’s eyes flutter shut at the action, his lips parted as gentle gasps escape his mouth, one of them sounding a lot like Luke’s name.

“I think I like this position better,” Luke confesses, another ‘ _fuck’_ leaving his lips as Ashton begins to thrust up. “Having you underneath me, me riding you. Love the way you gasp my name baby.” He rests his hands against Ashton’s shoulders and begins to lift himself up, grinding up and down on Ashton’s dick.

It’s then that the feeling in his stomach finally uncoils and he cries out, throwing his head back as his orgasm tears through him, pouring his cum out onto Ashton’s stomach. He feels Ashton’s dick twitch from inside of him and suddenly the boy is spilling into him. He watches as Ashton lets out a loud moan, his eyes screwed shut as he comes and it’s the most beautiful thing Luke has ever seen.

He lifts himself up off of Ashton, hissing as the cool air hits him. He allows Ashton to pull him to his chest, his heartbeat still beating fast as Luke rests his cheek against it. He pulls the covers up over them, covering their lower halves before he feels a hand stroke down his back, trailing lightly on his spine.

“So,” he hears Ashton say after a while, after they’ve caught their breath and have come down from their highs. Luke looks up from his position on Ashton’s chest and sees the boy staring down at him, a light smile on his face. “Was this a one-time thing, or is it alright if I take you out for dinner?”

That’s how it began: a quick tryst to avoid getting arrested, leading to one of the happiest relationships Luke had ever been in. As it had turned out, Ashton lived in the same area of Sydney as he did, allowing them to keep in contact and continue their relationship long after they left Columbia. While Ashton was pretty open with him about his personal life and his job, Luke made sure to keep up his cover that he’d created, telling his boyfriend that he was a contractor, his parents were dead, and that he had no siblings. It’s what the agency told him to say, it’s what he’ll continue to say.

He’s not sure what Ashton would think of him being an assassin, so he keeps his mouth shut. He keeps it up too, making up excuses through his business when he can’t attended parties or dinners. He keeps the lie up throughout seven years of their relationship, through their engagement to their wedding.

Maybe that’s why he is sitting here, eating dinner with his husband, and their conversation hasn’t gone anywhere. There’s nothing to talk about, nothing interesting to share between them that won’t get Ashton killed because Luke couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He feels like he’s living a completely mundane lifestyle, strange considering his profession.

“How was work?” Ashton asks him, stabbing a piece of steamed broccoli with his fork and bringing it to his mouth. He always asks this, it’s like it’s the only ice breaker that comes to his mind when they hit a rut in their dinners. He always replies with the same thing too.

“Boring, as usual.” it’s ridiculous, how seven years of love, passion, and happiness could all just grow boring. Luke longs for something exciting to spice up their marriage, something that can help him remember how exciting life used to be before he found himself living through a less than truthful marriage.  

He’s surprised when Ashton gets up from his spot at the table, taking his plate with him and putting it in the sink. Their dinners usually last an hour and half, exactly, but tonight it’s only been half an hour of sitting and eating. Usually they managed to have a conversation about  _something._ Ashton must sense his sudden curiosity because he’s walking over and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Sorry baby, I have a work thing tonight that needs to get done. I promise tomorrow’s dinner I’ll be around longer.”

Ashton’s never had to work late. Usually he stays after for a while to finish up some last minute things but never has he had to go back to work this late at night. He watches Ashton leave the room and head upstairs to their bedroom to change his clothes, leaving him with a half-eaten plate of spaghetti and a sudden wonder of what exactly his husband was really going to do.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Ashton, he actually trusted Ashton more than anyone in the entire world. Aside from his job, he told his husband almost everything. He wondered if Ashton does the same for him.

*

Ashton exits the taxi outside of the Annandale Hotel, thanking the cab driver before stepping out onto the sidewalk. He adjusts the collar of his button up, double checking his watch for the time before stepping forward and entering the building. It’s warm inside, the place bustling with life as the live band performs a hard rock song, drunken people dancing around to the beat. Drinks are sloshing onto the floor as they sway their bodies around, Ashton managing to dodge a few before getting to the front of the stage, sending a wink towards the lead singer, whose gaze has seemed to drift towards him.

The song soon ends, the band sharing smiles with each other before thanking everyone for listening. They begin to head for the backstage area, all except for the lead singer, who has hopped off of the stage and walked over to Ashton. He’s running a hand through his messy black hair, oozing confidence as he gives Ashton a smirk. “What did you think?”

“Loved the guitar,” Ashton tells him, hand trailing up the guy’s arm. “You’ve got some pretty skilled fingers, wouldn’t mind you showing me what other things they could do.” He winks, and the lead singer lets out a small laugh before taking Ashton’s hand and leading him towards the backstage. It’s even hotter back there than it was out on the stage, the smell of cigarette smoke hitting Ashton’s nose immediately and making him cringe.

“Smoke bothering you babe?” lead singer asks him and Ashton nods. The guy turns to his band mates. “Guys! Go smoke outside, alright?” His bandmates send him a couple of middle fingers before wiggling their eyebrows at the sight of him and Ashton. “Don’t bother coming back for another thirty minutes either!” He leans down to Ashton’s ear. “That alright with you?”

Ashton nods. “It’s perfect,” he coos, pressing a kiss to the lead singer’s cheek. This makes the guy practically drag him into the room, throwing Ashton down on the couch before climbing on top of him, sucking and biting at Ashton’s neck. Ashton throws his head back, allowing the guy more access to his neck as his eyes flutter shut. “Love, do you happen to have a condom?”

Lead singer pulls back from Ashton’s neck, nodding as he dips a hand into his pocket, only to come back empty handed. Ashton whines, making the guy smirk and grind down on him, eliciting a gasp from Ashton. “Sorry babe, let me go grab one real quick.” He gets up off of Ashton and begins to head towards the door, promising to return soon. The minute the door clicks shut Ashton gets up off the couch, unraveling the bandannas around his wrists. He moves the watch from his wrist to his pocket, just as lead singer is coming back into the room.

That’s when Ashton grabs him, throwing him down into the wooden chair by the make-up table and typing him down to the back of it with the bandannas. The guy lets out a protest, struggling against Ashton’s grip before Ashton forces him down. Once the bonds have been tightened he steps forward, sitting on the guy’s lap and grinding down on his crouch.

“What’s the matter love?” Ashton asks, trailing a finger down the guy’s cheek. “Not into bondage?” He grinds down onto the guy more, a loud gasp leaving his mouth. “Or is it that you can’t touch me? Is that it?”

The lead singer nods, biting down on his lip as Ashton leaves open mouthed kisses down his torso, tearing the band shirt he’s wearing down the middle to gain more access to his torso. He nips at the dark skin of the lead singer, moans rising from the guy’s throat at each touch. “Untie me baby, I want to touch you.”

Something in Ashton grows cold. It’s the pet name, the simple word making him stop his movements and getting up off of the guy. The lead singer shoots him a confused look as Ashton steps around him, standing behind him and rubbing his hands into his shoulders, massaging them. “You know,” he says, his hands snaking to the guy’s neck and tangling his long fingers in the guy’s hair. “There’s only one guy that can call me baby.” Then, without hesitation, Ashton snaps the guy’s neck, kicking the chair over and sending the body toppling to the floor. “You’re not him, in case you haven’t noticed.”

There’s a commotion outside of the door, most likely the guy’s bandmates returning. Ashton’s quick at untying the guy’s bonds and wrapping them back around his wrists before the guy’s come bustling into the room, all of them looking eager. They stop short when they see their lead singer on the floor, dead.

“Though you’d catch a glimpse at something boys?” Ashton asks them, a hand pulling his knife from his waistband and flinging it across the room, the metal embedding itself into one of their necks. Ashton’s quick to dart over to the other two, pulling out the knife from the guy’s neck and slitting their throats swiftly.  They fall down like dominoes, one after the other onto the floor. Ashton quickly stuffs bloody knife back into his waistband, stepping over the bodies and darting out of the backstage and onto the main stage, where security has come rushing in a panic.

That’s when he screams.

“The band!” He wails, tears starting to pour down his cheeks. “They’ve been killed!” He’s inconsolable, tossing around in one of the security guards arms as the man attempts to calm him down, have him breathe. His beats his fists against the guard’s back as the rest of the security heads towards the backstage to see what exactly happened.

“Stand outside, alright?” the guard holding Ashton tells him, patting his back. “They’ve already called the police, they should be on their way.” He helps escort Ashton outside, where sirens can be heard in the distance. The guard heads back inside the hotel, gun in hand while Ashton stands on the sidewalk, wiping away the tears that had rolled down his cheeks with a grin on his face.

“Taxi!” he calls, holding a hand out as the yellow car pulls to the curb. He quickly gets in, telling the guy an address before leaving the scene, just as the cops arrive. The lights can be seen from behind him as the drive away, and once they are out of sight the cab driver pulls over into an alley, turning to face Ashton.

“You got all four of them, right?” he asks, removing the cheesy looking hat from his head. He shakes his dark blue hair, running a hand through it as Ashton smirks.

“Sure did,” Ashton replies, removing his own black wig and shaking out his honey curls. He removes the contacts from his eyes, blinking a bit at the feeling. “Say, Michael, think I’d look good with blue eyes?”

Michael laughs, shaking his head before putting the car in reverse, pulling out of the alley and tearing down the road towards their workplace, where Ashton’s car is waiting for him. “I think the hazel is better for you Ash. Plus, I bet Luke prefers having them that color too.”

Michael is the only one Ashton has told about his marriage. It’s risky, telling coworkers about his personal life, but Michael has never been just a coworker. They grew up together, childhood friends who happened to both get involved in the secret agent business. It was refreshing, having someone on his side that he could talk to about things and know that they have his back. He’s grateful for his friend, always has been and always will be.

“Speaking of,” Ashton says, getting out of the taxi and heading towards his vehicle. “He’s probably pretty upset I left him alone during dinner. Think a blow job will help him forget about it?”

Michael chuckles, tossing Ashton the keys to his car. “That would probably help ease the anger, wouldn’t hurt to try.” He gives him a wave goodbye, heading towards his own car as Ashton slides into the driver’s seat and heads back to his home, tossing his black wig into the back seat as he tears down the highway.

He hates keeping secrets from his husband, he truly does, but he doesn’t want to get Luke involved in his secret life. When they had met all those years ago at that hotel in Columbia, Ashton had told himself that he wasn’t going to get involved with anyone as long as he worked for the agency. He didn’t want his feelings to interfere with his work, considering that he there for one reason and one reason only. When the police had burst through the doors he could have sworn they were after him. When Luke told him some bogus story about him being a criminal (bullet graze ended up being more of a ‘got his shirt caught on a fence and cut himself’ thing), he couldn’t help but fall for his goofy personality.

Luke made him laugh, made him forget that day by day he was putting his life on the line to protect people. Luke made him forget about the countless acts of murder he’d committed, made him feel like he wasn’t an assassin, but that he was normal.

He’d be damned if he lost Luke.

Pulling up to the house, first thing he noticed were the lights were all turned off. It had been happening more often than usual, and Ashton knew that Luke only shut all the lights off in the house if he was upset. He had every right to be, with Ashton leaving more and more at night for his stupid job.

Once the car has been parked into their garage he enters the house through the kitchen, hoping that maybe he’d find his husband rummaging through the refrigerator in need of a midnight snack. Ashton frowns when he notices the kitchen is completely empty, save for a couple of clean dishes beside the sink that were drying. Ashton sighs as he places his car keys in the bowl on the counter, shrugging out of his coat and hooking it on the coat hanger in the living room.

“Luke?” he calls out, hoping that his husband would respond. There’s nothing but the eerie silence the house always seemed to give off. He heads for the stairs, stepping quietly on each step in case Luke was sleeping. There was one step that let out a loud squeak whenever someone pressed even the slightest pressure on it, and Ashton found himself forgetting which one it was until his foot presses against it, letting out a loud squeak.  He curses under his breath, shaking his head before bounding up the rest of the stairs. He just hoped Luke wasn’t woken up by the cursed step.

There’s no light on the top floor of their home, not even from their bedroom. Ashton frowns when he finds the bed still made, the room void of anyone. There’s a hollow feeling in Ashton’s chest as he heads for the bathroom, ridding himself of his dirty clothes before starting up some bath water. He knows it’s pretty late at night for a bath, but he feels disgusting after this particular mission. Sure, he’s always used his good looks and figure to seduce his targets and get what he wants, but as of lately he’s felt disgusted by it all. It’s beginning to feel like that’s all the agency seems to use him for anymore: a pretty face to lure the target in before he slits their throats.

The bath water is warm, relaxing. He leans against the back of the tub and rests his head against the edge as the tension, not to mention the grime from the show, washes off of him. It’s the most relaxed he’s been in a long time.

“Rough time at work?”

Ashton’s eyes fly open at the sound of Luke’s voice, making him jump and face the entrance to the bathroom. The water ripples at the sudden movement, some of the water splashing up and over the edge of the tub, hitting against the tile floor in small puddles. His husband is leaning against the doorway, dressed in a pair of boxers (Ashton’s, Luke never seemed to actually own his own underwear) and a night shirt. He looks sleepy, making Ashton wonder where he was sleeping if he hadn’t been downstairs or in the bedroom.

“You could say that,” He responds, running a wet hand through his curls. He offers a tired smile to his husband. “Where were you sleeping? I didn’t see you when I came in.”

“Guest room,” Luke tells him, pulling his night shirt off and tossing it towards their closet before shedding his boxers and stepping into the tub with Ashton. He sticks his arms out, an invitation that Ashton accepts without any hesitation. He leans his back against Luke’s chest, his head leaning back to rest against his husband’s shoulder. “Want to tell me about work? Maybe I can make you feel better?”

Truth is, he’d love to tell Luke all about it. He wants to openly discuss his job with his husband, tell him about the amazing places he’s gone, the people he’s saved all over the world by taking out threats. He wants Luke to know the truth. He knows the risk though, he knows that Luke could be executed if he knew what Ashton did for a living, and as much as it pains him to lie to someone he loves, he has to.

“There was a snafu with one of the companies we installed with that new software I was telling you about,” he says, rehearsing the cover he and Michael had come up with when they had first started at the agency. They work at a Technology firm, re-writing software and computers, selling their programs to companies. They had grown pretty successful, despite the fact that the company was a cover up for the agency. Some of it had to be real though, to throw off the public. Luckily, Michael was an expert hacker and made his job believable. “Apparently their entire system and mainframe was wiped, I had to sort the entire mess out and figure out what exactly caused it.”

Luke wraps his now wet arms around Ashton’s middle, pressing light, feathery kisses to his husband’s tense shoulders. “I’m sorry baby,” he says, the kisses trailing up towards Ashton’s neck. “If it makes you feel better, I could let you bottom tonight? I know how much you love to ride me.” The last part is whispered into his ear, lustful and a bit raspy, making Ashton bite his lip. It was a tempting offer, and it definitely would make him forget about what had happened at the Annandale.

So he turns around, adjusting himself so he’s straddling Luke. “You sure know how to cheer a guy up,” he says before kissing Luke hard on the mouth, hands tangling themselves in his husband’s blond hair. Luke’s arms have wrapped around his waist and are pulling him closer to him, one hand sliding down to cup Ashton’s ass.

It’s wet, hot, but at the same time laughable as the two of them giggle into each other’s mouth, trying to navigate their long bodies in the tub so they are comfortable. It’s the happiest the two of them have been in months, slipping around in a bath tub with the water overflowing and splashing onto the tile as Ashton rides his husband’s dick, sharing hot and heavy kisses. It definitely rids the tension out of Ashton, that’s for sure.

Later, when they are dried off and sharing lazy kisses in bed, Ashton decides that it doesn’t matter if Luke is in the dark about Ashton’s real job. They love each other, and that overpowers the lies Ashton has told by far.

*

The agency isn’t happy with him, and it doesn’t really come as a surprise.

The minute Luke steps into the building Calum is right in his face, telling him that Feldman wants to speak with him. He knows its bad news, mainly because Feldman never speaks with him one on one if he’s done something right. All of his mission calls are either through phone calls or web cams, sometimes emails. It’s rare to talk to Feldman man to man and it’s most definitely not something to be excited about.

“If it’s about last night I’m not in the mood to discuss it,” Luke tells Calum, walking over to one of the computers and scanning himself in. “Have we figured out who took my target yet? Or, let me ask the bigger question, have we figured out why the fuck there was even someone else  _assigned_ to the same target as me?”

“We’re thinking it was Sinclair,” Calum tells him, handing him a folder marked with his name. “One of their agents probably caught wind that you were going after them and decided to make it their mission to kill them before you could. Wouldn’t surprise me.”

Wouldn’t surprise Luke either. Sinclair’s agency always seemed to be butting heads with them, making sure their missions got botched so they could have all of the glory. It was typical of them to do so, so Luke wouldn’t be surprised if they had sent out one of their agents to destroy Luke’s target before he got the chance.

It wouldn’t have been the first time either.

“Better go talk to Feldy then,” Luke groans, pushing back on his desk and sliding out of the chair. He heads towards the big man’s office, knowing damn well what’s coming to him when he steps into that room. He begins to brace himself for a red faced, angry John Feldman, but instead the man’s face is stone, no emotion detected. Luke’s not sure if that’s good or not. “Mr. Feldman, you wish to speak with me?”

“I do,” he says, getting up from his desk to shut the door behind them. Luke hears the sound of the lock being put into place before his boss heads back to his seat, staring at Luke with no emotion. “Last night you were assigned to take out a dangerous group of criminals that were selling guns to gangs that were a direct threat to us, and instead of hearing that you managed to take them out, I get word that one of Sinclair’s agents got to them first?”

Luke keeps a straight face, though he feels his anger rising again. “I did not see anyone else at the Annandale last night sir, and by the time I could get to them to make it a clean kill they had already been executed.” He doesn’t understand how either: whomever had gotten to them must have been more aware of the layout of the Annandale than he was. It was hard enough getting backstage undetected with how much security they had, so whomever managed to do it must have been on the inside somehow.

Feldman nods, turning his attention away from Luke before tossing him a folder. “I can’t afford any more mistakes Luke, you are supposed to be our top agent. It doesn’t exactly look good when our agency’s top agent doesn’t get the job done, now does it?” It’s a rhetorical question, one that leaves Luke nodding his head and taking the folder, giving his boss a quick nod before exiting the room. He drops himself down into his desk chair before opening the folder up and observing his next target.

It’s a simple target, one that Luke could probably do in his sleep. As he studies the folder, Calum comes up from behind him with a cup of coffee, placing it on his desk and looking over Luke’s shoulder. “Is this all Feldman wanted you for, the next mission?”

“That, and he is pretty angry about last night,” Luke closes the folder and tosses it on top of his laptop and runs a hand through his hair. He takes the coffee Calum had set down and takes a huge gulp, ignoring the burning sensation as it slides down his throat. “I don’t understand how someone managed to get to them before I did, I didn’t even see anyone go backstage with them.” It’s frustrating him that someone actually managed to take out one of his targets before him. It’s never happened before, not in the time he’s been working for Feldman. He’s not going to let it happen again that’s for sure.

Calum offers him a kind smile. “Sinclair has been sending out some pretty skilled agents, don’t beat yourself up about it too much, okay?” He looks over at the clock above Luke’s head and groans. “Fuck, I have a meeting to get to, something about the latest shipment of grenade launchers. How about we go out for drinks tonight, get your mind off of the botched mission?”

“Can’t, Ashton and I have our anniversary dinner tonight,” he’s amazed, really, that despite the entire mess that has been happening with the agency as of lately he remembered his wedding anniversary. It’s also hard to believe the fact that he’s officially been married to Ashton for eight years now, eight years full of lies and secrets that would have completely destroyed any other marriage. He had to admit, he was pretty proud of himself for keeping a relationship together for that long. “Rain check?”

Calum gives him a thumbs up before waving a quick goodbye, heading towards the meeting room. Luke turns back towards the folder and opens it up again, observing the information inside carefully. Feldman was right, they couldn’t afford any more mistakes from him. For years Luke has thrown himself into his work and made damn sure he made it to the top of the agency with his skills, he’d be damned if one botched mission killed all the work he’s put in.

He’s stuffs the folder into his satchel and heads toward the main office, where an older woman by the name of Madison works. She’s been Luke’s mother figure since his real parents passed away when he was younger, Madison taking him in and raising him through the agency since. While she’s no longer a field agent, she still works inside the agency, providing fake I.D’s, passports, and various other mission essentials. Luke is just grateful to have someone around that he can talk to, aside from Calum.  

When Luke gets to her desk she’s foraging through the filing cabinet. There’s a frustrated look on her face as she slams the cabinet shut before walking back over to her computer and clicking a few links. “Having trouble Mads?” Luke asks, his knuckles knocking lightly against the door. The older woman turns her attention away from the computer monitor and a smile appears on her face.

“Well aren’t you a nice sight?” she says, getting up from the desk chair and walking over to Luke, pulling him into a tight hug. “I’ve just been having some trouble with some of the newer recruits missions is all. Most of their files can’t be found, despite the fact that I could have sworn I placed them in there just the other day.” She walks back over to her desk and pulls out another folder, handing it over to Luke. “Everything’s in there, your plane ticket to Adelaide as well as some back up credit cards just in case you need to make some purchases under another name.”

Luke places the folder into his satchel before sitting down in one of the chairs set out in front of Madison’s desk. He sighs, running a hand through his hair before biting at the lip ring that rested on his bottom lip. “What do you think I should get Ashton for our anniversary tonight? I haven’t really had the time to shop for him and I’d feel awful if I didn’t get him anything.”

Madison gives him a questioning glance, one that makes Luke feels guilty. “Sweetie you’ve really been so busy that you couldn’t get your husband of eight years an anniversary present?” She says it in her motherly tone, one that Luke had grown accustomed to growing up. She only pulls it out when she’s either scolding him or about to give him a talk, so Luke just sighs. “Well, what did you get him last year?”

Luke blinks. “Um, I was kind of in France during last year’s anniversary?”

Madison shoots him a glare. “You didn’t at least get him a ‘sorry I missed our anniversary present?’” She sighs, pushing her desk chair back to come to the front of her desk and sit beside Luke in the other chair. “You do know that make-up sex isn’t exactly a present, right?”

“He liked it!” Luke insists, but he knows this is going to become a pointless argument. “Anyway, I want to make up for that this year, but I can’t seem to figure out for the life of me what on Earth he would want that he doesn’t already have. I’ve made it my mission the past eight years to make him happy, what could I possibly do tonight that would make it feel special?”

Madison takes his hand gently, giving it a loving squeeze. “I think showing up on time, giving him attention, making him feel loved will make it a wonderful evening.” She kisses his cheeks gently before going back to her desk. “Maybe even a brand new watch, who knows? I’m sure Ashton will appreciate anything that comes from you darling.”

Luke shoots her a grin. “Thanks Mads, I’ll see you soon, alright?” He gives her a wave goodbye before heading out towards his car, glancing one last time at the mission assignment before taking off towards the city. The mission could wait until tomorrow, the rest of the day he was determined to make the best anniversary Ashton would ever have.

*

“Sinclair wants to congratulate you,” Michael tells Ashton after their lunch together, the taste of barbeque chicken still on Ashton’s tongue as he wipes his mouth with a napkin. They were currently sitting in the break room at their agency, various foods half eaten in front of them from other employees stopping in and eating a bit every now and then. It had been a long morning in Ashton’s opinion, most of it being training in his hand to hand combat, leaving his muscles aching. This lunch break was exactly the thing he needed.

“For finally getting rid of Marx and his band of idiots?” Ashton asks, tossing the bundled up napkin into the trash can across the room. “I don’t think I need congratulations for that, any one could have caught them and killed them. Their security sucked ass last night, it was possible for anyone to get back there and take care of the job.” He doesn’t mean to sound cocky, but to him the mission the night before was an easy one. He’s dealt with much more difficult targets, ones that actually fought back with brutal force.

It reminds him of Colombia.

“That, and it looks like you managed to botch the mission for one of Feldman’s guys,” Michael tells him, taking their plates and tossing them in the trash. Ashton can’t help but smirk at that fact. He enjoyed angering one of Feldman’s lackeys, it gave him some sort of joy to know that he got to the target before one of them did. They always seemed to leave the scene a lot bloodier than his agency did. Ashton at least had the decency to make the crime scene cleaner.  “I’m surprised Feldman hasn’t figured out which agent Sinclair has sent out to purposely sabotage the missions yet.”

“Wouldn’t matter anyhow,” Ashton tells him, pushing back on the table and getting up from the chair to head back to his desk. “I never leave the scene dirty. He’ll never figure out it was me unless he tagged me with a tracking device. Other than that I’m pretty good when it comes to maintaining my identity.” He slides into his desk chair and logs into his laptop, a web chat request becoming the first thing he sees. He beams when he sees the name. “Mikey, close my door behind you when you leave, alright? Luke wants to talk to me.”

Michael groans and rolls his eyes. “Doesn’t he know you are at  _work?”_ Ashton shoots him a glare, causing the blue haired boy to laugh before leaving the room, shouting out a “No web cam sex in the office!” before shutting the door behind him. Ashton laughs before getting up from his desk to lock the door, quickly sitting back down to accept the request.

“Hey baby,” Luke welcomes once the request has been accepted. “How busy are you at work right now?” Ashton wiggles his eyebrows, causing Luke to laugh. “Not for that! I was just wondering if you were going to have to stay late tonight or if you were able to make it to reservations at Joker’s?”

“I shouldn’t be too long, we’ve been pretty slow today,” he leans back against his desk chair. “You could have just called to find that out baby, why the web cam?”

Luke mocks offense, causing Ashton to giggle. “Is it such a crime to want to see my gorgeous husband’s face since I had to rudely leave him this morning before he woke up? Especially on our anniversary, it wasn’t nice.”

“It wasn’t,” Ashton replies, putting on a fake pout. “I wanted morning sex for my anniversary present, but of course you had to go into work early instead. It definitely would have made up for last year when you jetted off to Paris instead of staying here with me.” He playfully smiles at the end of his sentence and it makes Luke laugh.

“I  _knew_ you were still upset about that,” his husband chuckles. “I promise that I’m all yours tonight, nothing will get in the way. I swear I’m going to make it up to you, alright baby?” He blows a kiss to the webcam, making Ashton’s heart thump. It amazes him that for a pretty ruthless assassin, he can pretty much melt at the sight of affection from his husband.

“You better!” he says, blowing his own kiss towards Luke. “I love you.”

“I love you more.”

The minute the webcam shuts off there is a knock on Ashton’s office door. He quickly gets up from his desk and unlock it, opening it up to reveal Michael. “Were you just waiting outside the door listening to our conversation or did you just happen to show up right as we finished?”

Michael blinks. “Maybe, but that’s not the point. Sinclair needs to speak with you right this minute.” He gives Ashton a thumbs up, a sign that whatever it is that Sinclair wants to speak about isn’t bad news. “Meanwhile I have a mission of my own that I need to catch a flight for, so I wish you luck on whatever Sinclair has for you and that you have a great anniversary.” He pecks Ashton’s cheek, making the boy squeal before he’s darted out of the building. Ashton shakes his head with a laugh as he approaches Sinclair’s office, opening the door and giving his boss a warm smile.

“Michael said you wanted to see me sir?”

Sinclair nods, motioning for Ashton to shut the door behind him before pressing a button on his desk. The window shutter slam shut and a metal slide comes down to block out the sunlight. The room lights up as a projector screen behind Sinclair comes down with a projection of a man’s face. “This is Sean Conway, he’s an agent that went rogue a couple of years back and is still on the run. He’s never made himself much of a threat up until now, so I need you to execute him as soon as you find him.” He slides a folder over to Ashton. “In there is your plane ticket, fake I.D, everything you need for your trip to Adelaide.”

“What makes him such a threat?” Ashton asks, thumbing through the folder. “It says he’s working alone but doesn’t exactly specify what he’s working on. I think I need to know this kind of thing going in just in case he’s got something that could interfere with the kill.”

Sinclair nods, shutting off the projector. Light begins to flood the room again as he gets up from his chair to sit on his desk, facing Ashton. “Let’s just say he’s got some Intel on agents still working here that could destroy this company. He can release any identity he wants at any moment and I need you to stop him before it gets someone killed.” He holds out his hand. “Deal?”

Ashton nods his head and shakes Sinclair’s hand firmly. “Of course sir, it shouldn’t be a problem.” He gets up and begins to walk towards the door, almost missing Sinclair’s parting words.

“No,” Sinclair mutters. “It shouldn’t.”

*

Joker’s was crowded by the time they pull up, Luke handing off the keys to their black Escalade to the valet. He holds his arm out for Ashton, a smile on his face when his husband takes his arm and pecks his cheek sweetly. “How did you manage to get reservations on such short notice baby?” Ashton asks him, staring in wonder as they enter the restaurant. They only went here on special occasions, which, aside from their anniversary, were pretty rare. It was Ashton’s favorite restaurant, it was the place Luke had proposed to him. It held a special meaning to both of them.

“A friend of mine owed me a favor,” Luke tells him, walking up to the host. “Hemmings, party of two?” He puts his arm around Ashton and leads them to their table, kissing the side of his husband’s head before they sit down. “Does this make up for me not being around last anniversary?”

Ashton hums, taking the glass of wine the host generously poured before leaving and taking a sip. “It will do.” He winks, making Luke laugh and take a drink of his own wine. “This is really wonderful Luke, thank you.”

“Anything for the man I love,” Luke says, taking Ashton’s hand from across the table and placing a kiss on his knuckles. “Eight years. Can you believe we’ve actually made it eight years without wanting to murder each other?”

Ashton laughs. “You are not that bad of a husband, though there are times where you anger me, but I don’t think I could really find it in myself to actually kill you.” He says it in a way that sounds genuine, almost in complete seriousness. Luke finds himself looking at his husband, wondering if there was a hidden meaning behind his words, something that Ashton wasn’t being completely honest about. Before he can ask their waiter has arrived and is taking their order, taking Luke’s mind off of the entire thing.

It’s later that night, after they’ve had their anniversary sex that Luke looks at his sleeping husband and wonders if he’s hiding something. He knows every marriage has its secrets, their marriage definitely containing more on Luke’s part, but never once has he questioned if Ashton has been completely truthful with him. Pushing the thoughts aside, he wraps his arms around Ashton and kisses his head before falling asleep.

The next morning he’s on a flight to Adelaide on the agency’s private jet, his mind far away with thoughts of his husband. He doesn’t know why Ashton’s words at dinner are bothering him so much, but they couldn’t escape him. There was just something in the way he said it that worried Luke.

“You alright?” a stewardess asks him, handing him his glass of water that he had ordered. “You look a little stressed.”

“I’m alright,” Luke assures her, taking a long drink of water. He sets the glass down in the cup holder of his seat before reading over the mission folder one last time, making sure he’s aware of everything that he’s about to encounter. He promised Feldman that he wouldn’t screw this mission up and he was bound to keep that promise.

He has a base in the Simpson Desert, away from tourist activity. If he’s heard correctly form his superiors, his target will be passing through her in a vehicle with others that’s working with, heading towards their own base somewhere in the desert. It’s blazing hot when he gets to the base, sweat making his thin tank top stick to his back. His normally styled hair is being tied back with one of Ashton’s bandannas to prevent it from flopping into his face, making it easier to use the binoculars without his hair in the way.

Luke sighs as he takes another swing from his water bottle, observing his laptop. His target, Sean Conway, is still a few miles out from where Luke is, making it impossible to catch him distance. The agency has set up land mines to take out any vehicle that passes through the perimeter he’s set up, times to make sure that a civilian doesn’t end up driving through and getting themselves killed. So far Luke hasn’t seen anyone around in the desert, only a couple of tumbleweeds resting on the outback.

He picks his binoculars back up, going back to observing the desert when he notices a cloud of dust being kicked up in the distance. Closer inspection shows it to be a bugee, though Luke can’t get a good look at how is driving it. Before he can get a closer look the alarm is going off, signaling that the mines are ready to be set off on a countdown of five minutes.

“Fuck,” Luke curses, turning to his laptop and shutting down the countdown. He turns back to where the bugee was, now stopped about two miles from Luke’s base. There’s a man getting out of it, taking his helmet off and replacing it with a baseball cap. He’s dressed in a tan tank top and khaki shorts, with sand colored combat boots on his feet. There’s sunglasses cover his eyes as he unbuttons his pants and-

He’s peeing into the sand.

Luke rolls his eyes. “What is wrong with civilians?” he mutters to himself before turning back towards the road, where he now sees Conway’s vehicles coming closer. He’s about to turn back towards the countdown, start it up again, when he notices movement from the corner of his eyes. He turns back where the civilian was and notices them pulling out a rocket launcher from their bugee.

“Fucking Sinclair,” Luke grumbles, picking up his sniper from the back of his base and lining up his shot. He doesn’t want to kill the guy, but if that rocket launcher goes off Feldman will have his head on a silver platter. Instead he aims for the chest, pulling the trigger and watching in satisfaction as the agent goes flying backwards onto the sand. “Serves him right.”

A beeping comes from his laptop, signaling that the countdown has begun once again and Luke sighs with relief. All he wants to do now is go back to the hotel and soak in the bathtub to clean off all the sweat and grime that has built up on him from being in the desert. He begins to gather up his things, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and prepare his escape when he turns back towards where Sinclair’s agent had been lying.

Now he’s aiming his rocket launcher towards Luke’s base.

Luke’s eyes widen as he ditches the last of his stuff, jumping out of the base and running towards his motorcycle. There’s a blast from behind him that sends him soaring forward, crashing into the sand roughly and most likely skinning his arms and legs up. His ears are ringing from being so close to the explosion and his head is throbbing from smacking against the hard ground, but none of that matters. He needs to get out of there right now before the mines go off.

He swings his legs over the motorcycle and starts it up, tearing off down the sand to get a good distance away from the mines. He’s a couple miles out when they start going off, far earlier than they were set to go off. He assumes it’s from his laptop being blown to bits by Sinclair’s agent, angering him even more once he sees Conway’s vehicles not even harmed by the explosions. They turn back around and head towards base again and Luke swears he sees red at that moment.

Feldman was definitely going to have his head.

*

Michael jumps at the sound of the door’s to the agency bursting open, smacking against the wall loudly and making every single head turn towards the entrance. Ashton is storming in, looking absolutely livid as he marches towards the infirmary, tearing off pieces of clothing on his journey.

“I want to know who the  _fuck_ was out in that desert,” He’s hissing, at various agents he passes, anger coursing through his veins as he pushes open the doors to the infirmary. Michael pushes back his desk chair and dashes over to it, wondering what on Earth has made his best friend this angry.

Ashton is sitting on one of the beds, a nurse tending to a large bruise on his torso and various cuts on his arms and neck. He looks battered, a sight Michael isn’t used to seeing on his best friend. Not even when he came back from Columbia did he looks so destroyed. “Ash, who the fuck did this to you?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Ashton snaps, fists clenched beside him. “I was ready to take out Conway when suddenly I’m getting shot in the fucking chest by someone camped out a little ways out. I’m betting all my money it was one of Feldman’s stupid fucking agents that just couldn’t resist trying to take me out. When I find out which of those pricks it is I’m going to-“

Michael places a calming hand on his best friend’s shoulder, feeling Ashton’s tense from underneath his palm. “Ash, you need to breathe, alright? Getting worked up about this isn’t good for you right now. I’m sure someone is looking into it right now.” He doesn’t know for sure on that, but if it brings Ashton’s anger down a notch he’ll make sure it’s happening.

Ashton breathes out through his nose and sighs. “Alright.” He thanks the nurse helping him before hopping up off of the bed, rubbing a hand over the bruise on his chest. “Thank god for bulletproof vests, but those things leave quite the bruise behind. What should I tell Luke I got this from, another impromptu MMA fight with you gone wrong?”

“He’s believed it all the other times before,” Michael laughs, picking up the bag Ashton dropped at the entryway. “Was told you brought something back for me, is it a t-shirt from the hotel you stayed at? A postcard?”

Ashton gives him a small smile and shakes his head. “Nah, it’s something even better.”

They reach Michael’s office quickly, dumping the contents of the bag onto his desk as Michael lets out a low whistle. “Jesus Ashton what did you do?” He picks up what used to be a laptop, now demolished almost completely and burnt. “Is this what set off those mines Sinclair was talking about?” He places the laptop behind him on his other desk, sitting down and beginning to prod at it with tweezers.

“I’m assuming,” Ashton replies, crossing his arms across his bare chest. “Whomever that fucker was that shot me had it up in their base, along with some shattered binoculars and a sniper. I’ve got the gun being looked at already but the binoculars are also for your enjoyment Mikey.” He picks up the broken gear and sets it beside the laptop, where Michael is observing the hard drive. “Figure out who the owner is yet?”

“Not really,” Michael tells him. “I’m looking for the Serial number right now, maybe I can find an address through that as to who this belongs to, but it might take me a while.” He removes his glasses and sighs, rubbing his eyes. “I’ve gotta leave right now though, I have a date with this really cute guy who I promised I’d take to dinner and I’m not one for leaving gorgeous people waiting.” He places the broken laptop and binoculars down underneath his desk before the two of them leave the office, the door locking behind them.

“Have fun on your date,” Ashton tells him. “One of these days you are going to have to tell me about this mysterious boy Mikey, but until then, remember to use protection and to not scare them off.” He gives his best friend a wink, who in return raises his middle finger at him. “I love you!”

Michael shouts back an ‘I love you too’ in return, and Ashton laughs before heading off towards Sinclair’s office, hoping to discuss the botched mission, when he’s stopped by one of the other agents, whose holding a laptop with video footage running.

“We’re running a scan on the area from the satellite set up by the base,” he’s told. “We haven’t picked up anything yet, but the moment we do we’ll contact you.”

“Thank you,” Ashton tells them before opening Sinclair’s office door and stepping inside. He shuts it behind him before facing his boss, whom he knows must be irate. “Sir, I’d like to discuss the mission with you and my findings.”

Sinclair lets out a boisterous laugh. “Your findings? Irwin, what did I tell you about this mission? This man could possibly get someone killed, and before you can come in to explain yourself to me I get word that another agent managed to botch it?” He leans forward in his chair. “I want you to find whatever agent prevented you from carrying out this hit and eliminate them, understood? Don’t bother showing your face in this office until it’s been done.”

Ashton nods, determination filling his veins as he leaves. “Yes sir.”

*

Luke can hear the garage door opening as he’s just starting to put peroxide on his various cuts, hissing as he begins cleaning a large cut on his chest. He looks pretty battered, various cuts and bruises from being blown off of his feet at the base. His head is still throbbing, most likely from a mild concussion, and once Ashton comes through the door he sure as hell is going to demand answers.

He hears a door opening and closing, keys hitting the kitchen counter before a loud gasp rises from his husband’s throat. “Oh my god what happened?” Ashton asks him, stepping forward and cupping Luke’s face. “Did you get into an accident at work?” Yeah, you could say that.

“Went to go look over a building we were thinking of tearing down,” Luke explains, hissing some more as Ashton dabs a cotton ball on one of the cuts on his shoulder. “It had passed inspection before we entered, but just as we headed upstairs I fell through them to the bottom floor. Knocked my head off of them when I fell, but luckily it wasn’t that much of a fall.” He smiles as Ashton presses a kiss to his bruised cheek. “What are you doing home early? Thought you said you had to work late tonight?”

He doesn’t miss the way Ashton stiffens at his question, his lips pursed as he begins to bandage Luke’s shoulder. His demeanor shows that he’s definitely hiding something, and Luke’s not sure he wants to know what it is. They’ve always been completely honest with each other, well, as honest as Luke could be. “They managed to figure it out without me, I actually have the next few days off. Told me I haven’t used much of my days off and that I could go ahead and use them. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to take some time off and spend it redecorating the house or something.” He tapes the bandage on Luke’s arm and places a kiss on top of it. “Did they give you some days off because of the accident, to heal?”

 _Not exactly._ “Yeah, told me to take a few days off to rest, get back to work when I could. I mean, I own half the company so it’s not like they couldn’t refuse it now could they?” He hops off of the kitchen counter and tugs his shirt back on, hissing as his back arches, extending the cuts. “Plus, I get to spend the next few days with you and I’m not going to complain about that.” He wraps his arms around Ashton carefully, arms still aching from impact back in the desert. Ashton gives him a grin before kissing him sweetly, hands on his hips.

“How about we go upstairs and cuddle?” Ashton suggests, grabbing his bag off of the floor and adjusting it on his shoulder. “I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that cuddling helps with injuries, might as well give it a shot.”

Luke lets out a light chuckle, kissing Ashton on the lips once more before cleaning up the counter and placing the first aid kit back into the pantry. “I do think some R&R is much needed, lead the way Mr. Hemmings.” He doesn’t miss the way Ashton shyly smiles at the name, always having a soft spot for his married name. Luke remembers the first time he got to call Ashton that, the way his husband’s cheek turned a bright red and the shy smile that followed. Luke remembers thinking how lucky he was to have Ashton in his life.

Which only makes it hurt worse at the returning thought of Ashton not being completely honest with him lately. He’s tried not to notice how his husband has been spending a lot more time at work as of late, more time making excuses as to why he can’t attend certain functions with Luke. Luke’s actually lost count of how many times he’s rescheduled some of their dates because Ashton can’t make them.

Halfway through their third movie, he looks down at his sleeping husband, passed out curled up and resting on his chest, and wonders how much longer the two of them will last before all of the lies they’ve kept from each other explode.

*

There’s a loud knocking on the door the next morning, the continuous rapping making Ashton want to rip the head off of whoever is causing it. He finally has a day to himself after yesterday’s mission gone wrong and he just wants to sleep the day away until he figures out a plan to execute whomever it was that destroyed his chances of killing Conway.

“Babe, door.” He groans, hugging his pillow as the knocking continues. He doesn’t feel anyone move from the bed, making him turn to see that Luke wasn’t even there. Ashton sighs, running a hand through his messy curls before noticing the green sticky note attached to Luke’s nightstand.  _Gone out on a morning run and to get some more groceries, love you!_

Ashton can’t help but smile as he places the note back on the nightstand, pulling a shirt on over his head before running downstairs to open the door. He unlocks the deadbolt before opening it to reveal an out of breath Michael, whose holding a piece of paper. He looks disheveled, almost panicked as he sighs with what sounds like relief at the sight of his best friend.

“Thank god you are still alive,” he says, stepping into the house and shutting it behind him, locking the door. He pushes past Ashton in a mad dash to shut all the blinds in the house before double checking all the rooms, Ashton following him with his curiosity piqued. “Please tell me Luke isn’t home and that’s he’s at work or something.”

“Or something,” Ashton responds, nonplussed. “And why is it a good thing I’m still alive? Did you finally managed to track down the dumbass that shot me yesterday? Is that why you are here?” He makes sure to sound as frustrated as possible, mostly because his best friend interrupted the sleep Ashton had been needing for months.

Michael stops his rushing around the house, biting his lips as he turns to Ashton. His stance is what makes Ashton even more nervous: his eyes are everywhere but on him, he’s twiddling with his thumbs, and the piece of paper in his hand looks like it been folded so many times it’s about to fall apart. He’s anxious. His best friend takes a deep breath, unraveling the paper and casting his eyes down to his feet. “You know the laptop you brought in for me to look at, see who owned it? I, um, I figured out who exactly the owner was.”

Ashton doesn’t like the way Michael delivers the news. His voice is shaky and his stance is still off. “Mikey, this is great news, I can now figure out who the bastard that shot me is and get rid of him. You should be happy about this, we’ll be taking out someone who is a threat to our agency!” His eyes drift to the paper in Michael’s hand, still clenched tightly in his best friend’s fist. “Let me see the name.”

Michael releases the death grip he had on the single sheet of paper, slowly handing it to Ashton. He’s shaking as he does so, Ashton furrowing his brow as he takes the paper from his friend’s hands and unfolding it to see the name of the person that he’s going to make his next target.

His heart plummets the minute his eyes scan the address and name attached to the serial number of the laptop.

_Luke Hemmings, Hemmings Contracting, CEO._

His vision begins to blur as he looks at the name over and over again, hoping he read it wrong, that it was a mistake. There wasn’t any possible way that it was his husband that tried to kill him, Luke couldn’t barely even handle a weapon. It’s a knife to the heart as he remembers one of their first dates, taking Luke to a carnival where he failed to shoot the target and win a stuffed penguin he had his eye on. Had it really been a ruse the entire time, a ploy to lure Ashton in just to murder him in the end?

“Ash,” Michael whispers, his voice soft as he steps forward and puts a hand on Ashton’s. “I’m really sorry. I spent all night checking to see if I was wrong, like maybe someone set him up to blame or something but all I got back was the same thing over and over again.”

Ashton sighs shakily, letting the piece of paper float to the floor. Tears are now running freely down his cheeks as he lets Michael pull him in for a hug, sobbing into his best friend’s shoulder. This couldn’t be right, there was no possible way that his husband was working for Feldman of all people. The past eight years of their marriage, all just one large sham. Ashton knew he’d been less than truthful when it came to his own identity, but he did it to protect the person he loved more than anyone in the world. There were so many things Ashton sacrificed for Luke, so many missions he passed up to attend Luke’s special events.

Ashton really wondered how much of his marriage was actually truthful, if any of it was.

Michael leaves a little after at Ashton’s request; he doesn’t want Luke coming back and seeing him there, Ashton not really having an exact game plan as to explaining to him what exactly Michael was doing there and why Ashton was crying. He instead runs up to the shower and douses himself in boiling hot water, trying to forget about how heartbroken he was at the moment. Various scenarios ran through his head about how he was going to handle the situation, knowing what he knew. There was no way he could go back to the way things were before, knowing his husband was trying to kill him now. Could he even stay at the house now, with the thought looming over his head like a dark cloud?

“Baby?” he hears Luke’s voice call into the bathroom, and it’s a knife to the heart all over again. “Turns out I have to go into work today, Calum is having an issue with the building from yesterday and needs me to look over some of the costs to tear it down and renovate. I promise it won’t take long, alright?”

Ashton manages to hold back the sob that threatens to explode from his mouth. “Okay, just make sure you are home in time for dinner.” Maybe this is what he gets for all those years ago in Columbia, sleeping with a stranger on the run from the police. Was karma really that cruel to him? “I love you.” Three words that probably meant nothing to Luke, but still meant the world to Ashton.

“I love you too,” Luke responds, voice warm and caring. Ashton wonders how good of an actor his husband really is. “I’ll see you at dinner.” The bathroom door closes behind him and Ashton finally let’s out the sob that had been building up in his chest. He hates himself for feeling like this, feeling weak over someone who betrayed him. The agency taught him to be ruthless, emotionless, but here he is breaking down in the shower over a broken heart.

Ashton thinks back to what Sinclair had told him, about never showing his face again if he wasn’t going to eliminate the agent who botched his mission. Usually he had no problem eliminating a problem or threat to the agency, he could do it with just a snap of his fingers. How was he supposed to kill the one person he truly thought was the love of his life and actually walk away from it feeling absolutely nothing?

Ashton shuts the shower off, grabbing a towel and quickly drying before heading towards the bedroom and getting dressed. He sorts through their shared closet, trying to find something that hadn’t been suspicious before he knew the truth, but came up with nothing. Knowing exactly the kind of man Luke was now, there was bound to be some hidden toys around the house. There was no way Luke would live there unarmed. Ashton was the same case: His drum kit in the guest room was stocked with pistols and various other hand guns, as well as some sleep darts. The bigger toys he kept stashed away in the basement in a secret room only he had the key to.

It appeared they would come in handy now.

*

“Calum you better have you a really good reason as to why you brought me in on my day off,” Luke says the minute he walks into Calum’s office, immediately skipping the formalities. “Today’s the day I had an entire day with my husband to do whatever we pleased and you just had to-“

It’s then he notices the look on his friend’s face. It’s not the usual Calum Hood peppiness he’s greeted with whenever he comes into his friend’s office. This time it’s one of shame, almost like a kicked puppy. “Actually, the reason I called you in here was about Ashton believe it or not.” He pushes against the floor, making his rolling chair roll backwards towards one of the main computers. He brings up a video from the Simpson Desert mission, the camera focused on the agent that had almost blown Luke to bits.

Luke looks over Calum’s shoulder at the screen, eyes searching the agent that appears. It’s right after he had taken a piss in the sand, zipping his pants back up when he faces the camera head on. Luke recognizes the curly honey hair almost immediately, stuffed underneath a pitch blank bandanna that Luke remembers getting him for their fifth anniversary.

Calum is looking at him now, sympathy in his eyes. “You know how you were telling me that you thought Ashton was hiding something from you?” He turns back to the screen, closing his eyes. “I’m sorry I had to confirm that for you.”

Luke’s numb. On one hand he’s hurt, heartbroken that his husband’s weird behavior recently has been confirmed. Another part of him is filled with rage, knowing that not only did Ashton botch this mission for him, he could possibly be the agent that had been ruining missions for him for months. “Cal, think you could step out for a minute? I need to be alone.”

“Take as much time as you need.” Calum tells him, giving him a quick hug before leaving the room, offering one last sympathetic glance before the door shuts behind him. Luke takes a seat in Calum’s chair, rewinding the video to when Ashton first arrived and watches. He looks at the confidence that practically rolls off of his husband, like he’s done this mission a million times before. The Ashton on camera looks nothing like the Ashton he’s been married to for eight years.

Both of them have been pretty damn good actors he supposes.

He shuts the computer down before leaving the room, hoping to head home and talk to Ashton about this, finally come clean about everything he’s lied about for the past eight years when Feldman is stepping out in front of him with a grin. “I’ve heard Calum’s found who our next target is, that correct?”

Luke fights the urge to bite his lip, nodding. “Um, yeah he did. I’m just about to go plan with him actually. He and Madison are waiting for me in the break room so I’m just gonna-“ There’s a hand on his chest as Feldman steps forward, stopping Luke from going anywhere.

“I need you to get rid of him before he can kill Conway, got it?” Feldman threatens, his hand fisting in Luke’s shirt. “One more mission going haywire and you can kiss your ass goodbye.” He releases the fabric from his grip before offering up a friendly smile, turning around the closing the door to his office. Luke swallows, clearing his throat and adjusting his clothing before heading towards Madison’s office. He needed some motherly advice.

Madison’s waiting for him in her office, a kind smile on her face that also contained the same sympathy as Calum’s did. Calum is leaning against the wall, offering another sympathetic glance before coming forward and wrapping his arms around his friend tightly. “What are you going to do?” He whispers, rubbing a comforting hand up and down Luke’s back.

Luke is trying his best to hold back the tears threatening to spill as he squeezes Calum back. “Feldman says I have to kill him before he kills Conway. How am I supposed to do that though? How am I supposed to execute my husband, someone I love more than anything this world has to offer me? How am I supposed to just forget about the past eight years of my life and put a bullet between Ashton’s eyes?” He feels the hot tears trailing down his cheeks now, but he doesn’t care. “When I first started at this agency, I was told to never show emotion, never let anyone catch me with my guard down. You two are the only ones I opened up to in the beginning, and then when I met Ashton I thought I’d become an open book, and he the same. I guess, as it turns out, both of us were writing a completely different story for the other.” He collapses into the chair in front of Madison, the older woman getting up from her seat and gathering him into her arms.

“I wish I could give you an answer honey,” she says, kissing his temple. “This is something completely out of my jurisdiction. I can’t really tell you what to at this point, other than to do what you believe would be the best thing to do in this situation.”

Luke sniffles, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his sweater. “The only thing I can do at this point is resign from the agency and protect Ashton at all costs. Then again I’ll be putting both of us in danger if I do that. Either way one of us is a loser and going to end up dead at the end of it all.”

Calum sits down beside him in the other chair, hand on his shoulder. “This is probably the last thing you need to hear right now, but you said it yourself earlier. You need to go into this with no emotion, no feelings. Ashton has botched a lot of your missions lately, and you want to stop that from happening again. Honestly, I don’t think there is a situation for this where one of you isn’t dead.” He gets up from the chair and heads towards the door, hand on the knob before he turns back towards him. “Look, I’m your best friend, and I don’t want you to be miserable, but honestly Luke? I think the only thing you can do is carry out the hit and kill your husband.”

He leaves without another word.

“Madison?” Luke whispers helplessly, looking up at his adoptive mother with hope. All she offers him is a sad smile and a kiss on the forehead. Luke knows that there is no way out of this for him, and as much as it kills him inside, there really is only one thing he can do.

Kill Ashton.

*

Headlights flash into the kitchen, the rain hitting against the window being illuminated as Luke pulled his car into the garage. Ashton looks up from where he’s chopping the vegetables for dinner, a smug grin on his face when he knows its Luke. He scoops the veggies into the boiling pot and turns the stove down to simmer, lid on the pot before walking over to the oven and pulling out the pot roast.

After his meltdown that morning, Ashton had decided in order to get rid of his lying, traitor husband, he’d have to be tactful and sneaky. He wasn’t too sure on what Feldman taught over at his agency, but he’s pretty sure Luke is a lot more clever then he lets on. Plus, Ashton can’t wait to see his husband squirm as he gathers to the dinner table and tries to act like he’s nothing but a regular guy. Ashton wasn’t going to let him go without knowing that he knew the truth, what would be the fun in that?

This was one of the reasons not to get on Ashton Irwin’s bad side, he was  _vindictive._

“Hey baby,” Luke calls into the kitchen, smiling at him from where he stands by the stove. Luke strides over to him and pecks his lips gently, almost making Ashton crumble again. It’s hard to act tough and forget about the lies when he’s always been weak for his husband’s kiss. “I smell pot roast, you only make that one special days.”

Ashton hums, checking the vegetables before turning the stove off and dumping them into the strainer in the sink. “Tonight is a special occasion baby, I have something to tell you that’s pretty special.” He grabs a carrot from the strainer and pops it into his mouth, chewing slowly before grabbing one of the wine bottles from the cooler by the fridge. “Wine?”

His husband grins. “Pot roast and a glass of wine? This must be really good news baby.” Luke grabs a couple of wine glasses before heading into the dining room, Ashton’s heart thudding in his chest as he walks away. He hates how weak Luke makes him, how much he just wants to forget this entire thing and just live with the fact that his husband worked for a rival agency.

He wishes it were that simple.

He joins Luke in the dining room, his husband already having poured the wine into their glasses before coming towards him and handing him his glass. “To whatever good news you have to say,” Luke toasts, clinking their glasses together before taking a sip. Ashton hesitates for a moment before doing the same, placing the glass at his side of the table and sitting down. Luke sits across from him at the large table, taking his coat off and draping it over the back of the chair. “Sorry again about me having to go into work today, Calum is practically lost without me there.”

Ashton laughs lightly, stabbing a piece of roast with his fork and stuffing it into his mouth. “That’s alright, but you have to know that you are going to have to do a lot to make it up to me.” He sends a suggestive wink towards his husband, making Luke smirk.

“I plan to,” Luke tells him before scooping up some vegetables. “So, what is the news you wanted to tell me?”

“Oh!” Ashton says, swallowing the roast in his mouth before continuing. “You know how I’ve been telling you about that one firm that keeps double booking with us whenever we are working with a company?” Off of Luke’s nod, Ashton smirks. “Well, we finally figured out which firm that was. They are having me handle it and if I do, I might get a bonus.”

He notices Luke’s confident demeanor flatten, and he can’t help but smile at the sight. “That’s great baby, I’m happy for you.” It sounds forced, his cover is slipping.

The rest of the dinner is uneventful, full of silence mostly. Ashton watches Luke closely throughout the entire dinner, noticing his husband’s uncomfortable stance and his eyes have been wandering around the room like crazy. He’s probably searching for an exit, or trying to remember where he stashed every single one of his weapons just in case Ashton tries something.

Ashton’s sneakier than that. He’s not going to just pull a gun on his husband right at the dining room table, nor is he doing something as cliché as poisoning the dinner. (He worked far too hard on the pot roast to poison it, no way in hell) He’s going to ease Luke into it, hopefully the fellow assassin wouldn’t catch on.

“Dinner was great baby,” Luke tells him, putting his plate in the sink along with Ashton’s, rinsing them before turning around and wrapping his arms around Ashton’s waist. “Now how about I make up for the day I spent at work when I should have been here with you?” He leans in closely, hand cupping his ass. “Meet me upstairs, okay?” He pecks Ashton’s nose quickly before sauntering up stairs. Ashton smirks before putting a hand on his back pocket, his eyes widening when he realizes that the switch blade he had stuffed there was gone.

“Sneaky bastard,” he mumbles under his breath before heading up the stairs, stopping by their wedding picture in the hallway and lifting it up, grabbing the pistol he’d hidden in the safe underneath it. He quickly loads it with ammo before heading up the rest of the stairs, gun poised and ready. “Baby, you ready for me?” he asks as he peeks into their bedroom, only to have his switch blade zoom past his ear and stick into the wall behind him.

“You could say that,” Luke shouts back, and Ashton finally bursts into the room, gun poised. Luke is nowhere to be found, Ashton notices, and he’s about to peek into the bathroom when suddenly he’s being hit in the head roughly with what feels to be a vase. He crumbles to the ground, groaning as his head smacks off of their desk. He’s definitely going to get a bruise from that.

He swears he hears Luke laugh before footsteps leave the room. Ashton grabs for his gun, slowly rising from the ground and darting towards the hallway. There’s a figure dashing down the stairs that he follows, but for some reason can’t bring himself to shoot. He instead chases his husband down the stairs, tackling him to the ground by the time they both reach the final step.

Luke lets out a grunt, squirming underneath Ashton as he beats his fist against him. “Get the fuck off of me!” he screams, finally managing to knock Ashton off of him before getting up. He starts to run again, only for Ashton to grab his pant leg, making him fall to the ground and smack against the floor roughly.

Ashton smirks. “Thought you liked being underneath me baby?” he says, climbing on top of Luke again and pinning him down. “Now, it seems to me that my husband has been less than truthful lately. How about we calmly discuss this?”

A laugh escapes Luke’s lips as he overpowers Ashton, punching him in the stomach hard enough to knock the air out of him. Ashton sucks in a breath, collapsing to the ground as Luke gets up and delivers another rough blow to his husband’s stomach. “I could say the same for you baby. How about we discuss this later though, alright?” He winks before darting off towards the garage, leaving Ashton panting on the ground.  

Ashton manages to get himself up on his feet, holding his stomach. It was going to bruise, definitely. He picks up his gun from the ground and keeps it at his side as he slowly approaches the garage, having not heard a car driving away. He’s assuming Luke is hiding somewhere inside, probably having an escape hatch planned.

He only gets a few steps closer to the garage when he smells gasoline, and he only manages to run a few feet when there’s an explosion behind him, the garage going up in flames. If their previous squabble hadn’t gotten the attention of the neighbors, this definitely would. That’s not what’s going through Ashton’s mind as he watches the flames engulf their garage. What’s going through his mind is panic, fear.

“Luke!” he screams at the flames, his voice shaky and panicked. There was no way Luke could have been safe from that, even if there had been an escape hatch there. The flames had to have been ignited at close range, there was no way Luke could have survived that explosion, hell, Ashton surprised he managed to get far enough from it.

Ashton’s very much aware of his mission: he’s supposed to kill his husband, no feelings attached. While his hatred for his husband grew with the discovery of his lies, his heart still broke at the thought that Luke was actually dead. His eyes flicker at the flames, hoping for some sight of Luke’s body in the wreckage, but nothing comes up.

That is, until, he hears a gun cocking behind him.

“I’m not one for suicide,” Luke’s voice whispers behind him, making him slowly turn around to face the barrel of the gun in Luke’s hand. “Especially when there’s a target out there that has yet to be eliminated. I can’t exactly go back to Feldman with the news that the one fucking agent that’s been ruining everything for me got away.”

It ruins the mood, but Ashton lets out a dark chuckle. “So, you were the agent I’ve been botching, eh? I knew about the desert, but I’m taking a shot in the dark here, Annandale too?” He smiles, another chuckle. “That’s amazing, really.” He grabs Luke’s wrist swiftly, twisting it enough to have Luke let out a yell, dropping the weapon. He punches Luke in the nose before darting towards the stairs, hoping to retrieve a better weapon. He can hear Luke screaming at him from downstairs, and for some reason it makes him smile more.

“I want a fucking divorce!” Luke screams, and those words make Ashton stop dead in his tracks. His heart clenches in his chest as the words ring in his ears, his fists become clenched as they tighten their grip on the hallway closet’s handle. There’s some pretty heavy weaponry in there, weapons that could easily kill Luke if Ashton aims well, but it’s those words that are holding him back from opening the door.

He knows that it’s better this way, divorcing. He knows neither of them will get to that part, especially at the rate they are going now. One of them wasn’t leaving this house alive, and deep down Ashton hoped it was him that didn’t make it.

He takes a deep breath, opening the closet door and slinging the shotgun over his shoulder by the strap. He grabs some ammo, stuffs them in his pockets before closing the door shut and walking slowly back to the stairs. He doubts Luke is still there, he’s smart enough to not stand in one place vulnerable. Ashton quickly poises the weapon, scanning down the stairs and the surrounding area before ducking behind the china hut.

There’s a table resting in front of him, pictures in frames laid out. Most of them are from when Luke and Ashton were dating, their faces squished together, kisses on cheeks, and for a moment, Ashton smiles at the memories he made with his husband. That is, until, he notices a reflection in one of the pictures moving, something being tossed towards him. He barely has time to react when the grenade goes off, a cloud of smoke engulfing his surroundings and making him choke.

When Ashton hears footsteps, he swings his elbow back. He hears something hit the ground, groaning, and sends a swift kick to the figure. “Doesn’t feel nice, does it babe?” he says, kicking what he believes to be Luke’s stomach once more before cocking his gun and aiming.

When the smoke finally clears, he sees that Luke had the same idea.

“Go ahead,” Luke tells him in a whisper, his eyes sparkling with unshed tears. There’s blood caked onto Luke’s face, possibly from his nose. Ashton’s pretty sure he looks pretty bloody himself from the glass of the vase and various other things. Both of them are pretty beaten up, but he’d never expected Luke to give up this easily.

Here he is, gun poised and aiming right at Luke’s head. His finger is reaching for the trigger, ready to plunge the bullet deep into his husband’s, his enemy’s, skull. This is what he wanted, he wanted to fulfill the mission Sinclair gave him, hoping it would give him the closure and that the past eight years would end up as nothing but a distant memory filled with the lies Luke told.

He can’t do it.

Luke is looking up at him, tears still spilling down his cheeks angrily. “What are you waiting for? Fucking do it.” His hand is shaking, though he’s attempting to hold the gun steady.

“I can’t,” Ashton whispers, his own tears finally bubbling over. “I can’t bring myself to actually kill you.” He sets his gun down on the ground, hands up as Luke still aims towards his face. “If you ever really loved me, you wouldn’t be able to do it either. So, if you want to prove to me that this entire marriage, these past eight years, were nothing but a mission for you, go ahead and kill me.”

Luke gets up from the ground, slowly, with the gun still aimed at Ashton. “Our anniversary dinner,” he says, his grip tightening on the gun. “You said those exact words to me at the dinner that you couldn’t bring yourself to actually kill me if you ever got the chance. You, you actually meant that.”

Ashton nods. “I should hate you. I’m supposed to hate you, look at what you’ve done, and look at what I’ve done. We’re murderers, Luke. People like us are not meant to have happy endings. We kill people for a living, the fact that we thought we could lie to our spouse and have no consequences is ridiculous. We were hoping for something better than what we deserved.” He closes his eyes, hands still in the air. “I’d rather be dead than live in a world where I have to be without you.”

He expects a bullet in the head. He’d given Luke the perfect opportunity to kill him, the chance to finally get revenge for every mission Ashton screwed up for him. When seconds pass by with nothing, Ashton opens his eyes to see Luke with tears in his eyes, tossing the gun to the ground before cupping Ashton’s face and kissing him roughly.

“I fucking hate you for lying to me,” he hisses against Ashton’s lips, nipping and biting as Ashton pulls him tightly against him. “I hate how you botched my missions and almost got me fired from the best job I could ever have.”

Ashton laughs, hand cupping Luke’s ass as he pushes him against one of the walls, cracking the picture frame and making Luke grunt at the impact. Their lips collide again in a searing kiss. “Ah yes, killing people is such a glamorous profession baby.” He throws his head back the minute Luke’s lips connect to his neck, sucking harshly at his jugular. “I guess I have no room to talk in that department now do I?”

Luke nods against his neck, biting down hard on Ashton’s neck and making the boy yelp. “You know what surprises me?” he says, licking a stripe up Ashton’s neck and making the boy shiver. “I blew up our fucking garage and the cops haven’t even arrived to investigate.”

Both of them burst out laughing, noses brushing together, making Luke hiss. Ashton presses a light kiss to it. “Sorry for possibly breaking your nose.” He whispers before capturing Luke’s lips once again and biting down on his bottom one. “Then again, maybe you deserved it for lying to me for eight years.” He tastes blood between his teeth from his tight grip on Luke’s bottom lip and releases it, picking Luke up and carrying him towards the dining room, resting him on the table. Both of them quickly push away silverware and decorations, plates shattering against the hardwood floor as Ashton lies Luke down, lips never separating as he tears off Luke’s jacket.

Luke scoffs, turning them around so Ashton is pinned underneath him. “Did I now?” he asks, grinding his hips down harshly and making Ashton whimper. “Well then, maybe I’m going to punish you for lying to me by making this painfully slow, how about that?” He grinds down slower, and Ashton bites his lower lip. Hands come up to rest on Luke’s hips, making the boy smack them away. “You don’t get to control the pace babe.”

Ashton laughs, a smirk forming on his lips as he brings his hands up to Luke’s shirt and fists at the material, tugging on it and pulling it up over Luke’s head. He tosses it across the room before pulling Luke’s face down at colliding their lips together once again. “You know,” he says against Luke’s lips. “You know how I told you that my parents couldn’t attend our wedding because they didn’t approve of gay marriage?” Luke nods, attaching his lips to Ashton’s neck. “Well, the truth is, I couldn’t find actors to play my parents in time for the wedding so I made that up.”

Luke bites down on his neck, harder than necessary and making Ashton yelp. “I legitimately thought your parents were assholes because of that!” He tears off Ashton’s shirt, lifting the boy up off of the table before slamming him against the wall, just like Ashton did to him. His hands fumble with Ashton’s jeans before sliding them off of his husband’s legs. “Do you even have parents?”

“Nope,” Ashton pants as Luke palms him through his boxers. “Dad ditched when I was barely a few months old, mom put me in foster care when I was twelve after getting hooked up on drugs.” He jumps, wrapping himself around Luke and letting him grind his hips against his once again. The friction makes him throw his head back, Luke’s lips attaching to his collarbone. “Your turn to tell a truth.”

“When we were in Columbia,” he says, still thrusting his hips up into Ashton’s as he slams his husband into the wall again. “I was being chased down by the cops because I had just assassinated a pretty important diplomat. They were looking for people traveling alone, I saw you, made up some bullshit excuse, got away with it. They never got a good look at me anyhow, only saw the back of me.” His hand disappears down the front of Ashton’s underwear, but Ashton swats his hand away and hops off of him.

“That was my fucking target!” He hisses, gripping Luke’s hair tightly and slamming their lips back together. Luke’s pretty sure their lips are terribly bruised by now, but he’s not stopping anything. “Looks like I’m not the only one botching missions of other agents?” Their lips stay attached as Ashton walks backwards into the living room, the back of his knees hitting the arm of the couch and sending them toppling onto it.

He quickly makes do of Luke’s jeans, both of them finally lying on the couch in nothing but their underwear. Ashton can feel Luke’s bulge against his, slowly grinding up against his husband with a tight grip on his hips. “On our first anniversary, I was late because I got blood all over my dress shirt and had to buy myself a new one, not because traffic was bad.”

Luke laughs, though it comes out more like a moan as Ashton thrusts up roughly. “ _Fuck,_ I lied about liking your pot roast, it’s actually the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.” He expects Ashton to start hitting him, but instead he gets sharp nails digging into his back, dragging down slowly as he matches Ashton’s thrusts.

“Wasn’t my pot roast baby,” Ashton whispers, his voice hoarse. “Michael’s grandmother’s recipe. All of my cooking has been from either Michael or some stupid cooking show that happened to be on TV before you got home.” His nails dig deeper into Luke’s back, making Luke hiss into his mouth. Luke’s hands fist around the waistband of Ashton’s underwear, the man biting his lip before he’s tugging them down and wraps his mouth around Ashton, tongue swirling around the head. Ashton throws his head back into the couch pillows, hands fisting into Luke’s hair.

“I seduced people into bed with me in order to get information out of them,” Ashton gasps out, knowing it’s not an appropriate time to announce that. Luke’s tongue is now licking up his length slowly, agonizingly at those words. “Never slept with them, just a little bit of foreplay.” His hips thrust up slightly, making Luke choke a bit. “None of them compared to you, if I’m being honest baby.” He looks back down at his husband, whose now humming around his dick. The vibrations make Ashton let out a loud, throaty moan and tug harder on Luke’s hair.

Luke is looking up at him, beautiful ocean eyes hidden behind his eyelashes as he continues to flick his tongue around Ashton’s length. Ashton can see the lust in his husband’s eyes as he takes it, his tongue now gliding over the slit and Ashton’s not sure if he can hold on much longer.

Instead he brings his husband’s face up, Luke’s lips making a popping noise as he’s removed from Ashton and he presses another loving kiss to Luke’s bruised nose. “Anything you need to tell about what you did on your missions?”

Luke laughs. “I guess we have something else in common,” he presses himself against Ashton tightly, hand between them as he wraps it around Ashton and begins to pump. “I have to ask though: that night at the Annandale, how far did you get with that lead singer?”

Ashton’s arches his back, chest against Luke’s as his hand begins to pump him faster. “ _Fuck,_ wouldn’t you like to know.” He’s getting closer to his orgasm, the familiar coil in his stomach begging to be unraveled. He’s biting back the whine that threatens to escape his mouth, not wanting Luke to know he’s completely in control. He’s still angry, angry about everything that has happened in one day alone, and he’s not about to let Luke have the satisfaction of knowing Ashton is enjoying this.

Despite it probably being completely obvious.

“You can come if you want,” Luke tells him, his thumb stroking slowly across the head. “Come all over my fist, you know you want to Ash.” He’s got that snarky smirk on his face once again, one that Ashton wants to wipe right off, but he can’t bring himself to do it without his orgasm.

His hands find Luke’s back again, nails scraping down the soft flesh as he finally lets himself release his orgasm. White ropes coat both of their stomachs, Ashton biting down onto Luke’s shoulder to keep his cries of pleasure quiet. Luke lets out a moan at the slight pressure against his shoulder, letting Ashton collapse underneath him before flipping them over, tugging his own underwear down his legs. His hard on slaps against his stomach at the release, the tip a dark red at making Ashton lick his lips.

“Poor thing,” Ashton pants, still wore out from his orgasm. “You probably want release to, don’t you?” He presses a sweet kiss to the tip, hands lightly trailing up and down the length as Luke breathes heavily underneath him. “After all the lies you’ve told me, I should give you some punishment, don’t you think? Maybe I should leave you with some blue balls, how about that?”

Luke shakes his head. “You better not, I swear to god you better not.” He reaches for his aching cock, desperate for attention, but Ashton swats his hands away, pining them above his head with one hand. The other hand is wrapping around Luke, thumb swiping at the tip and coating itself with pre-come. “A-Ash, please just,  _fuck._ ”

Ashton lets out a short laugh, releasing his grip from Luke’s cock and placing three fingers at Luke’s bottom lip. “Open your mouth baby, I need you to suck.”

Luke’s sore, red lips open up at the command, allowing Ashton to place three fingers into his husband’s mouth. Luke’s tongue swirls around the digits, coating the fingers with saliva before Ashton pulls them out and places one of them against Luke’s hole. “Gonna start prepping you, make sure you’re all stretched and pretty for me.” He places one of Luke’s legs over his shoulder, gaining better access as he slides a finger into him. Luke lets out a sharp gasp at the sensation, making Ashton smile and curl it until Luke’s breathing becomes erratic.

Another finger is added, Ashton having to tighten his grip on Luke’s hands as he curls both of the fingers, scraping against his husband’s inner walls. “By the way,” he says as he slides his fingers in and out of Luke. “At the Annandale, I didn’t do anything with him except let him put his tongue in my mouth, then I snapped his neck.”

“Ash, please,” Luke whimpers, hands struggling against Ashton’s restraint. “I need to, I need you to touch me baby,  _please.”_ Ashton likes this, likes having his husband beg for him to touch him, beg for release. Luke’s free leg is now wrapped around Ashton’s waist, pulling him closer to him and Ashton just gives him a smile before adding a third finger, fucking Luke relentlessly with them.

“If you weren’t so fucking tight,” Ashton tells him, fingers picking up their pace. “I wouldn’t have to focus all my energy on this, I could have been getting you off.” He feels Luke clenching around him, the feeling making his cock harden. He watches as his fingers move in and out of the boy underneath him, and he’s biting down at his bottom lip at how beautiful Luke looks when he’s in pure bliss.

“ _A-Ash!”_ Luke cries, and Ashton finally removes his fingers, instead wrapping his hand around himself in an attempt to get himself ready for Luke. Once he’s properly hard again, he aligns himself with Luke’s aching hole, the head of his cock against the opening. “It’s nice, having you underneath me, powerless. I like knowing I can make you like this.”

He doesn’t give Luke time to respond, instead pushing himself inside him and resting his head against Luke’s shoulder. His hand releases its grip on Luke’s, letting the boy place his hands on Ashton’s hips as he begins to thrust inside of him. It’s overwhelming, having Ashton inside of him, and he knows that right now they should be furious at each other, screaming and trying to kill each other, but right now he’s in too much bliss, feeling too much ecstasy to even give a shit about what had occurred only a few minutes before.

He shifts, leg falling from Ashton’s shoulder so he can wrap both of them around Ashton’s waist, replacing his hands. His hands pull Ashton’s face away from his shoulder and rest their foreheads together, Luke panting into Ashton’s mouth as each thrust leaves him whimpering.

“Want you to see me,” Luke pants into Ashton’s mouth, making Ashton open his eyes as he rocks into him. “Want you to see me when I come undone, want you to see the look on my face when you bring me to my orgasm.” He tightens his grip in Ashton’s hair, forcing the boy to keep his focus on his eyes.

“I love you,” Ashton rasps, his voice hoarse and beautiful. “I know we’ve fucking screwed up here, and we are supposed to be against each other, but fuck I love you so much, I really do.” He closes his mouth over Luke’s, knowing if he doesn’t he’ll keep talking.

Luke cries out as Ashton hits his sweet spot, the grip on Ashton’s hair tighter than before as he tugs on the sweaty curls. His back arches off of the couch and Ashton wraps an arm around the small of Luke’s back, tugging his hips closer as he continues to thrust into him relentlessly. Luke is tightening around him now, his hard on rubbing against Ashton’s stomach. He can feel it throbbing, begging for release.

Luke comes moments later with a violent shudder, crying out Ashton’s name and Ashton loves seeing Luke’s face as he releases. His legs begin to fall from around Ashton’s waist, not having enough strength to keep holding on. Ashton can’t help but orgasm once again at the beautiful sight that is his husband, fucked out with tears leaking from his eyes.

He wants to enjoy this moment, enjoy how beautiful Luke looks underneath him, enjoy the one moment of happiness they’ll have before they have to come out of this with their guns poised once again, but he doesn’t get that chance.

There’s a loud knock on the door that makes them pull apart.

“About time the cops show up,” Luke laughs, his voice rough and Ashton just laughs, pulls out of his husband and picking up their clothes from the floor. Their shirts are practically unwearable, but they managed to slip on some underwear and head to the door, Luke’s arm around Ashton’s shoulders as they answer it.

A cop is standing there, fist poised to knock once again. His eyes go wide when he sees the state they’re in, but both of them just give a kind smile to the man. “Are you two aware that your garage has been on fire for the past thirty minutes?”

They don’t even try to act surprised. “One of the neighbor kids must have shot off a firework again, damn,” Luke curses, kissing Ashton’s cheek. “Guess we can redecorate now, right babe?”

Ashton laughs at that, kissing Luke’s lips sweetly before bidding the officer goodbye as the sounds of the fire department echo in the background. Luke watches as the flames are put out completely, both of them standing in the doorway as the fire is put out and the trucks disappear into the night, both of them left only with an estimate of the damages of a burnt garage.

“Well,” Ashton says once he’s closed the door, sliding his hand into Luke’s and intertwining their fingers. “How about some breakfast? It’s pretty early in the morning but if you ask me, we’ve worked up quite an appetite.” He winks, making Luke shove him gently as they walk to the kitchen, avoiding various pieces of glass that surround them.

They can’t make much, the kitchen not exactly in the greatest shape after their fight, but they manage to have some juice and fruit, both of them taking turns sliding said fruit into each other’s mouths with happy hums.

“You know,” Luke says, chewing on the piece of honey dew in his mouth, the juice leaking from the corners of his mouth. He wipes them off with his sleeve. “I’m really curious about this, what the hell were you doing in Columbia exactly? I mean, you know what I was doing, and I know you said I stole your target, but why on Earth were you just sitting in a hotel while that man was free game?”

Ashton sighs, taking a drink of his orange juice. “Honestly, I was planning a way to sneak into the place and get him. I guess you could say I was still in practice around that time, and when you came in all bloody and running from the cops I could have sworn you were the one to do it.” He lets out a laugh. “Who knew you actually had!”

Luke smiles, taking a grape and popping it into his mouth. “I even made up some bullshit story to get out of that, one that you believed by the way.” He pushes a grape in between Ashton’s lips, Ashton kissing Luke’s fingers as he did so. “What else is there that we need to discuss, well, aside from the billions of things we’ve lied about.”

Ashton ponders this for a moment, chewing the grape in his mouth as he thinks. “Remember our fourth anniversary, when I showed up late because Michael crashed our server and I had to help him fix it?” Luke nods, taking a bite of strawberry as Ashton continues. “In reality it’s because Michael hacked into a rival agency’s programs and was accidentally spilling identities out to everyone on the internet. I had to help him cover up his tracks.”

“One time, when I said that the bruise on my jaw was from someone swinging a two by four around? Well, that was Calum and I doing battle training and him catching me off guard.” He takes a drink of orange juice, placing the empty glass down on the counter. Ashton laughs at him before his smiling lips place a kiss on Luke’s jaw.

“The night you proposed to me,” Ashton says, fiddling with the collar of Luke’s shirt. “You said that I reminded you of sunlight and all the good things in the world. Do you still believe that? Despite all the people you know I’ve killed?” He gazes up at his husband, trying to figure out his own answer somewhere within Luke’s eyes, but comes up blank.

Luke opens his mouth to speak when there’s a suddenly glass breaking, a loud thud against their fridge. Both of them turn to look when smoke begins to fill up the kitchen, several more windows breaking around them and loud footsteps against the hardwood floor. Luke wraps an arm around his husband as they both duck out of the kitchen and head towards the dining room, where Luke grabs one of his pistols from underneath the table.

“We need to get to the basement,” he whispers, loading the pistol. “I have more ammo and weapons down there then I do up here. Do you have anything to protect yourself with?”

There’s a loud commotion as someone barges into the dining room, gun aimed directly at Luke. Before the guy can even reach for the trigger Ashton is grabbing one of the steak knives from that night’s dinner and sending it directly into the guy’s neck. The guy falls to the floor in a heap and Ashton smirks at his husband before pulling the knife out of the guy’s neck and holding it tight in his grasp. “I got something.” He says before following Luke out into the hallway, heading towards the basement. Luke stares at him in wonder as they enter the basement, making Ashton turn around and give him a look. “What?”

“Always viewed you as defenseless if I’m being honest babe,” he confesses, shutting the basement door behind them and heading down the stairs. “You being all tough and fighting back is pretty hot.” He walks over to a small chest underneath one of the tables they stored down there, opening the latch and pulling out some weapons. Ashton nods in approval at the array of guns now scattered across the basement floor as commotion from above continues. “Grab a gun and load it, we don’t know how much longer we have down here until they realize we are here.”

Ashton nods, crouching down and grabbing one of the handguns and loading it. He grabs a few more packs of ammo, stuffing them into the boots in the corner of the room. “We need footwear, put these on babe.” He tosses Luke one of the pairs before sliding on his own. They look ridiculous, standing in only their boxer shorts and rubber boots, but they don’t have much. “Think we can get out of the cellar entrance or do you think they have the place surrounded?”

“Probably have us surrounded,” Luke decides, stuffing one of the guns in the waistband of his boxers. “It’s probably Feldman that has us surrounded too, finally decided to get rid of me because I couldn’t eliminate the target.” He closes the chest, duffel full of guns slung across his shoulder. “We just need to get out of here and grab a getaway car, head to Calum’s house. I’m pretty sure he’ll take us in and hide us for the time being.”

Ashton quirks an eyebrow at that. “Are you sure about that? What if Feldman got to him first? What if he’s been pinned against us like the rest of your agency seems to be?”

Luke ponders this for moment, before deciding, “Calum wouldn’t turn against me like that, he’s been there for me for far too long to just turn on me because of this. Mads wouldn’t do it either.” There’s a loud crash against the basement door and Luke quickly cups Ashton’s face, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Whatever happens, know that my love for you was never something I made up, okay? That was all real.”

Ashton nods, kissing him one last time before aiming his gun towards the top of the stairs, ready for whatever came their way.

There’s a small clanging as a device clatters down the stairs, resting at Luke’s feet. It’s a small silver grenade, ticking loudly in their ears. Ashton quickly kicks the thing away from them as it continues to count down, both of them heading towards the cellar doors and bursting them open. Unsurprisingly, they are met with great force, bullets flying from every angle as they attempt to shoot their attackers and dodge all at once.

They don’t expect to be completely blown off of their feet, their house exploding to bits behind them as they crash into the grass. Luke pulls Ashton into his embrace, covering his head as various pieces of debris rain down on them from the explosion. Their attackers are lying on the ground around them, either unconscious from the blast or dead.

Ashton peaks his head out from underneath his husband, looking back at what remains of their home with wide eyes. “Grenade packed a shit load of force.” He whispers under his breath, picking himself up off of the ground and brushing off the ash and dust. Flames flicker at his feet from the various remnants of their home and he can feel the pieces of wood stuck in his curls. “I don’t think we can get away with telling the fire department that this was just a firework this time.”

It’s not appropriate at the time, but Luke can’t help but laugh.

*

There’s a loud beeping noise coming from Michael’s nightstand, and he knows it’s definitely not his alarm clock. He doesn’t have to be at work until eleven today, so he set his alarm for when the sun is already in the sky. He lets out a frustrated groan before rolling over towards the nightstand to stop the continuous beeping and almost jumps when he hears a groan coming from someone that’s not him.

“I thought you said you didn’t work today?” they say, wrapping their arms around Michael’s middle and pressing their lips against the boy’s forehead. “C’mon, let’s get some more rest, maybe have an entire day in bed.” Their lips begin to trail down Michael’s face before nestling their head into Michael’s neck.

Michael hums, interlocking their hands before turning and kissing their nose, laughing as their face scrunches up. “I think it’s just my cell phone Cal, I’ll shut it off and we’ll cuddle, alright?” He gets a nod in return, kissing Calum once more before he reaches for his cell phone.

ONE NEW TEXT MESSAGE FROM: SINCLAIR

Michael quickly checks behind him, making sure Calum doesn’t notice the name on his phone before sliding his thumb across the screen to read the message.

TARGET: LUKE HEMMINGS

REWARD: $400,000

Michael’s eyes go wide the minute he sees the name. He’s not sure how the company found out about it being Luke that botched Ashton’s mission, but he’s not surprised they caught on. It was bound to happen eventually, but that didn’t mean he wanted it to happen. Ashton was struggling enough the new found fact that his husband was working for their rivals, Michael knew when it came down to it Ashton would never kill Luke.

His phone vibrates again, and that’s when his blood runs cold.

TARGET: ASHTON IRWIN

REWARD: $400,000

“Something wrong?” Calum asks, rubbing his eyes as he peers over Michael’s shoulder. His eyes land on the illuminated screen and he swallows. “Fuck, that’s definitely not good.” He tears the covers off of himself and reaches for his discarded clothing, pulling on his jeans and slipping his shirt over his head. “Got an idea of where they could be?”

Michael shrugs, setting his phone down so he can pull on some clothing as well. “They probably already scoped out the house, I’m not too sure where they could have gone afterwards. If this entire thing is what it appears to be, both of our agencies are going after them now. The safe houses are definitely out of the question.” He runs a hand through his blue hair with a groan. “I warned Ashton, I warned him that this might happen. He knew the risks of having a marriage while working for Sinclair.”

“Forbidden?” Calum guesses, sliding on his shoes before walking over to Michael and helping his with his button up. “Same goes for Feldman. He says relationships are a distraction and its best not to be distracted as a field agent. If I had known that Ashton worked for Sinclair earlier maybe this wouldn’t be happening.” His hands rest on Michael’s chest, closing his eyes. “What if we get caught?”

Michael’s thought about that, more than he would like to admit. He knew when he first met Calum it was a risk, dating someone while he still worked for Sinclair. His boss wasn’t like Feldman: relationships of any kind were banned from his agency, and if you were caught in one it had to end. When he had first met Calum a few months back, he figured they could keep it on the down low. It wasn’t until Calum confessed to working for Feldman that it became rough.

He hates keeping his relationship from his best friend, but it was for the best. Now it seems that he couldn’t hide it for much longer, especially if the agency was cracking down on their friends.

Michael reaches up and places a hand on Calum’s cheek, making his boyfriend open his eyes. The beautiful chestnut color stares back at him, slightly blurry with tears and it breaks his heart. “We won’t get caught, okay? If we do, I can take the fall for that. You can feign innocence to my work.” He brings their faces together, lips slotting together perfectly. “I love you.”

Calum hums against his lips, hand on Michael’s wrist as they rest their foreheads together. “I love you too.” He removes himself from Michael’s grasp before sliding on his jacket. “C’mon, I have an idea of where they might be.”

*

The look on Madison’s face when she takes in Luke and Ashton’s appearances is one of concern, her motherly instincts showing as she invites the two of them into her home, double checking the perimeter before shutting the door behind them.

“They sent out a bounty for you this morning,” she tells them, handing them some mugs full of steaming tea. They sat on her couch in the living room, the blinds on the windows all shut with only a dimply lit lamp illuminating them. “Both of you are worth $400,000, each. You are going to have a lot more agents after you, and I can bet that Feldman and Sinclair are probably combining forces to tear the two of you down.”

Luke nods, sipping his tea. “I managed to save a couple of weapons from the house before they blew it up, that’s what is in the duffle. Sadly,” he motions between him and his husband. “We only left the house in our underwear and some pretty uncomfortable boots. Do you happen to have any clothes we can borrow?”

Madison nods, jutting her thumb out towards the stair case. “You can check upstairs in your old bedroom. I’m pretty sure I have some clothes stored up there for emergencies, they should fit both you and Ashton.” Luke gets up from the couch to head towards the staircase, but Madison stops Ashton from getting up. “I want to speak with you while he’s up there, if you don’t mind.”

Ashton looks over at Luke, who gives him a reassuring nod before he heads up stairs and leaves his husband with his adoptive mother. Ashton swallows, feeling nervous under Madison’s glare. “So, I’m just going to ask you a few questions here. I have no intention to turn you in for the money, mainly because I’m not stupid, but I do need to know something.” She gets up from her chair and moves to sit beside Ashton on the loveseat. Ashton looks over at her as she says, “Did you know Luke was working for Feldman when you married him?”

He shakes his head. “I did not. I only just learned of this yesterday I promise.” He wonders if this is the interrogation he got out of when he and Luke had first got engaged and now he’s really wishing Luke would hurry and get back downstairs.  “I know what you are going to ask, and I’m telling you now that I have no desire to kill Luke. I’ve loved him since they day we met and I could never kill someone that I love. Was I hurt when I found out he was working for my rivals? Of course I was, but I cannot bring myself to kill someone that I promised I’d love till the day I die.”

Madison nods, taking in the information before the sound of footsteps are coming down the stairs. She leans in closer, lips inches away from Ashton’s ear as she whispers, “That day might be sooner than you think.” She pats Ashton’s knee before taking his cup of tea and walking into the kitchen the moment Luke arrives in the living room with clothes in his arms.

“I’m not too sure these will fit you, but they are going to have to work,” He tosses his husband a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt before noticing the change in Ashton’s demeanor. “Everything alright?”

Ashton clears his throat. “Of course, yeah, just trying to figure out a game plan here.” He doesn’t let Madison’s words get to him, or at least he tries not to. He knows exactly what is at stake, knows that there is a pretty huge chance he and Luke were not going to be alive much longer, but it hadn’t really settled in his mind that they were going to be dead until Madison basically confirmed it.

There’s a soft pair of lips on his that draws him out of his thoughts, making him close his eyes and kiss Luke back. “I’ve dealt with much worse than this Ash. I can promise you right now that both of us are going to get out alive, and if that is not possible you are going to get out alive, okay?” He presses a finger to Ashton’s lips before he can respond to that. “I mean it. I’d rather you live through this than go on without you.”

Ashton’s opening his mouth to protest when there’s a quiet knock on the door. Both of them are up and aiming their handguns before Madison can enter from the kitchen. She takes one look at them and makes a hand gesture for them to get into the kitchen before she steps towards the door, Luke and Ashton standing behind her with their guns poised.

“Mads!” a voice from outside says, both Luke and Ashton lowering their weapons when they recognize it. “It’s Calum, and a guest, can we come in?”

Madison looks back at the other two, who slowly nod. The thought that Calum had a guest was questionable, but they knew it couldn’t be too bad. Well, no one they couldn’t take at least. After gaining their approval, Madison slowly opens the door to her home and lets Calum in, Ashton placing his gun on the coffee table the minute he sees Michael.

“Thank god you are still alive,” Michael whispers, wrapping his arms around Ashton and hugging him tightly. “I’ve been panicking since I got the text that the company sent out a bounty for you. Are you alright?”

Ashton nods against Michael’s chest, holding his friend tighter. “Yeah, both of us managed to get out of it with hardly any battle wounds.” He releases his death grip from Michael before turning towards his husband, who is holding Calum just as tightly as he was embracing Michael. “Do you happen to know anything about what the agencies are planning to do or are you as much in the dark as the rest of us?”

Calum releases Luke, but leaves a hand on his shoulder. “I overheard Feldman talk about executing one of Sinclair’s agents, which I assume is you, but that’s about all I heard. The only other talk there was around the agency was Luke was the one assigned to take you out as well as a rogue agent by the name of Conway.” There’s a small chuckle from him before he says, “Which I assume you already know who Conway is, considering your agency seems to have a thing for botching our missions.” There’s a bitterness in his voice that makes Ashton frown, but Michael is chuckling beside him.

“And you said it didn’t bother you that much,” Michael says, walking over to Calum and pecking his cheek. “Anyway, with the agency on both of your asses, we need to find a way to get you the hell out of here without them detecting you. I’m assuming you’ve already thought of some possible ways to do this?”

Luke shakes his head. “We haven’t had too much time to plan, but we know for sure that we can’t just leave. We do that and the agency will just force the three of you to give us up. We are not going to let them do that. What we need to do is figure out how to defend ourselves from the people we used to depend on.” He intertwines his hand with Ashton’s, squeezing it gently. “They probably know by now that Ash and I have refused to eliminate each other, making both of us a threat, hence them blowing up our home. They are not going to let a threat like us just walk away free.”

Madison folds her arms across her chest. “Maybe the two of you need to find a way to get the agency to forgive you. I’m willing to bet that there is a target out there that they need to capture more than you two.” She walks over to her desk, pulling out a manila folder and handing it to them. “Both agencies have considered him to be a threat, him being rogue. If you two manage to capture him that might bring the agencies to forgive you to some degree.”

The folder contains a mission report, detailed with information on the one person that had created this entire mess. “Conway,” Ashton whispers, handing some of the files to Michael. “Think you can get into the agency and figure out where this guy is headed or is set up? I doubt he could still be in the Simpson Desert after last time.”

Michael gives him a nod. “Pretty sure I can get it from here, I just need a laptop.” He looks up at Madison, who raises an eyebrow. “Do you possibly have a computer I can use around here? I’m pretty sure I can hack into your agencies main frame and get what I need.”

Madison nods, walking towards her desk and hanging Michael the laptop. Michael immediately opens the computer and gets to work, fingers flying across the keyboard. “Alright, it might be a while before I can get an exact location.” He turns towards Madison again. “Are you sure this place is safe for them to stay for the time being, at least until I get this figured out?”

“Definitely,” Madison says, closing the curtains on one of her windows. “Probably the safest place they could be at the moment. How much time do you need exactly, just so we can get a clear estimate on how much time we have?”

Michael looks up at the clock hanging above the television. “I’d say two hours, hopefully less than that.” He turns to Calum, who is currently observing the file. “Babe, think you can help me on this? You said that at Feldman’s you were one of the people in charge of hacking and intelligence.”

“I guess I can,” Calum replies before taking a seat by his boyfriend. “I was mostly there for weapons intelligence, gadgets and stuff. Most of the hacking was left to others, but I can help to some degree if it helps keep our friends alive.” He hooks his chin on Michael’s shoulder and observes his boyfriend’s work. “I know for a fact that the investigation is under the name ‘CDL’, so once you find that you should be able to access everything you need to know.”

The grip on Luke’s hand tightens then, making him look over at Ashton. “Hey, are you nervous? We’re going to get out of this alive, I promise you.”

Ashton shakes his head, turning to face his husband. His expression doesn’t show nerves, but it does show something Luke can’t detect. “I’m not going to let my job take you away from me. These past eight years have been the best years of my life and I’ll be damned if they think they can take that all away from me.” He rests his head against Luke’s chest, Luke wrapping his arms around him and kissing his head. “I love you.”

“I love you too, so much.” Luke pulls Ashton away from him before cupping his face. “Both of us are going to find Conway, together, and as soon as he’s put away and the agencies are off our backs, we are going to be happy and everything is going to be perfect, alright? That much I can promise you.” His eyebrows furrow before he speaks. “And about what I said back at the house, about a divorce…”

Ashton presses a long finger against Luke’s lips, silencing him. “We both wanted to kill each other when you said that, it was in the heat of the moment. I forgive you for that, as long as you promise to never threaten me with that again,” he chuckles to himself before saying, “And while we are both on the topic of our fight, I just wanted to say that you really have an impressive aim with knives baby.”

This makes Luke smirk, kissing Ashton sweetly before releasing his husband’s face and intertwining their hands together once again. “You need to work on your hand to hand combat, but other than that you are quite the fighter.” He winks, a wink that makes Ashton push him lightly with a laugh. Both of them have wide smiles on their faces, and despite the odds against them at the moment, they were grateful for each other.

Nothing could tear them apart now.

*

“I said  _left,_ you are going  _right._ ”

Ashton rolls his eyes as he continues his descent through the ventilation system of a building just a little outside of Sydney, which Michael discovered to be the home base of Conway. After a long debate as to who would actually go in and capture him, Ashton decided he would take it upon himself to go in, despite Luke’s protests of wanting to go in himself.

Ashton was starting to regret putting Luke in charge of directions, because currently to his left was nothing but a fucking wall. “Baby, I believe I have told you this before, but you are fucking terrible at directions. Hand the laptop to Michael he can do better than you.”

He hears Luke huff and smirks. “I am not bad at directions, you are just terrible at following them. Now do what I told you and go left.”

“I can’t go left!” Ashton protests once again, grabbing the camera from his headset and aiming it towards the wall. “You see this? This is what is there when I go to the left. I am not the incredible Hulk, I cannot burst through the wall, alright?” He continues to crawl forward, stopping once he reaches one of the vents. He peers down into the room, noticing movement from a couple of men. “I think I found Conway’s room, I’m setting off the stun grenade.”

“We’ll be out here in the truck,” Luke tells him. “Good luck baby.”

Ashton silently removes the vent cover, setting it beside him before tossing the grenade down into the room and lowering his mask down over his face. He hears various people choking and yelling, Conway definitely one of them. Ashton quickly slides out of the vents and into the room, swiftly knocking the guards out while they coughed and rubbed their eyes.

He eventually finds Conway on his bed, rubbing his eyes and blinking furiously. “I heard you drop in! Where the fuck are you?”

Ashton quiets his steps as he grabs the lamp off of the nightstand, swinging it into Conway’s head and knocking the man out. “Right here buddy.” He whispers to himself before picking the man up and opening the balcony door, hooking the grapple from his belt onto the ledge and gliding both of them down.

“I feel like that was far too easy,” Calum comments when Ashton gets back to the truck, a knocked out Conway in his grasp. “That should have been way harder, how on Earth did you manage to get him out that easily?”

Michael waves his hand at him. “Eh, focus on the victory here Cal, we got the one thing that could save Luke and Ash. Let’s head back to Madison’s and get him in the basement. He should wake up pretty soon, we can talk to him then.” They close the doors to the truck before tearing down the road, Ashton keeping a watchful eye on Conway the entire drive.

“Do you think that was too easy?” he asks Luke as they turn onto the highway. “I did manage to get in there pretty easily, but I figured it was because I’ve been doing this for so long I grew accustomed to it. Maybe I got lucky this time?”

Luke shakes his head, taking Ashton’s hand in his and rubbing his thumb over his husband’s knuckles. “You made it look easy babe. You’ve been doing this for an incredibly long time, and you are right, you just grew accustomed to it. There is nothing wrong with being a good field agent, which is what you are.” He pecks Ashton’s cheek before turning his attention back towards the front, where Michael and Calum have their hands intertwined and resting on the center console. “Okay, explanation time, when the hell did this happen and how come Ash and I were in the dark about the whole thing?”

Michael lets out a chuckle from the driver’s seat, turning to Calum with a grin. “You want to tell them or should I?”

Calum rolls his eyes before turning towards the back seat, facing them as he begins. “Well, I was at a bar one night after the servers crashed at the agency, stressed out of my mind. I was hoping to unwind, maybe have a one night stand to take my mind off of things, when I ran into this guy here.” He smiles fondly at his boyfriend before turning back to Luke and Ashton. “We basically fucked in the bathroom of the bar, and then again back at my place. The next morning, I actually wanted to see him again and invited him out on a date and well, that’s it.”

Michael scoffs from the driver’s seat, passing a car before turning to look at Calum. “You make it sound so romantic babe, can’t wait for the moment you introduce me to your parents with that award winning tale.”

Luke laughs, ruffling Calum’s hair. “Well I’m glad I know the identity of the guy you haven’t shut up about the past few months, though I have to admit I least expected it to be Michael of all people.”

“Well if you had just invited Calum to our wedding they could have met earlier,” Ashton points out. “Assuming you knew Calum at that point anyway. Which, by the way, I want to ask you, who the hell even was the guy you got to be your best man at the wedding you never talk about him.”

“Again,” Luke says, smiling sheepishly. “Not exactly a friend of mine, hired actor.”

“ _Wow,”_ Ashton says. “At least I told the truth about my friends. I would never hide my best friend from the world, right Michael?”

Michael lets out a loud laugh, making Ashton frown. “Ash, you didn’t tell me about Luke until the night you fucking proposed to him, I wouldn’t exactly say that is good.” He pulls into the parking lot of a motel, parking the truck and shutting off the engine. “I already got us a room on the lower floor, right beside a good exit in case we need to make a quick escape.” He hops out of the driver’s seat and hands Luke one of the key cards. “Calum has the other one, we are stationing ourselves up in the room next door to see if we can find out what exactly our next move is.”

“Sounds good,” Luke tells him before opening the back door and pulling Conway’s arm over his shoulders. “We can just pretend he passed out drunk if we happen to run into anyone, okay?” The others nod quickly before heading towards the rooms, opening the doors up. Luke places Conway gently onto the desk chair, tying his wrists down and his legs together while Ashton closes the blinds.

It’s about an hour later that Conway’s eyes flutter open, a panic in them when he takes in his surroundings. “Where the fuck am I?” he looks between the two of them in surprise. “Who the fuck are you two and why the hell am I here?”

Luke folds his arms, crouching down beside Conway with a frown on his face. “None of that is important, what we want to know is why you decided to betray one of the world’s top agencies and reveal the identities of agents to the entire world?”

Conway only blinks his eyes in return. “I have no idea what on Earth you are going on about, I’ve never been an agent in my life. Now, can you let me go?”

Luke chuckles at that, getting up from his crouch and slapping Conway across the face, hard. His head turns harshly at the force and Ashton has to get up from his lounging on the bed to step in front of Luke before he does more damage. “Baby, hey, why don’t you just calm down, we don’t need to beat the shit out of the hostage.”

“He’s going to be difficult,” Luke deduces, stepping forward towards Conway again. “Listen here you prick, you need to give us answers, because honestly I’ve dealt with far too much shit today to deal with some fucking asshole lying to my face about his involvement.” He pushes past his husband to grab Conway’s jaw, gripping it tightly. “Now you better fucking tell me what the hell your plan is or I’m going to grab my pistol and shoot you through the skull, got that?”

Conway swallows at the threat, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he turns to look behind Luke. “Can you control your god damn boyfriend here before he kills me?”

Ashton sighs before pushing Luke aside, crouching beside Conway with a mischievous smile on his face. “All we need is for you to tell us what it is exactly that you have that have our bosses putting a bounty on your head, that’s all. I promise if you just tell us that we can let you go.” He can feel Luke glaring at him from behind but he doesn’t care. This is how he managed to get some of the targets to trust him, by playing the nice guy. Ashton had never been one for good cop bad cop but at this point it seemed to be the only solution.

“Back pocket,” Conway says, making Ashton furrow his brow. “If you want to know what exactly is going on, I have it in my back pocket.”

Luke and Ashton share a look before Luke walks behind Conway, kneeling down and picking a piece of paper out from his back pocket. It’s folded into fourths, a little worn from being folded continuously. The minute Luke unfolds it his eyes go wide and he’s tossing it towards Ashton, running his hands through his hair. “They knew,” he says, tugging at the blond strands. “They fucking knew, they set us up.”

Ashton quirks an eyebrow before reaching for the picture, a sharp intake of breathe as he observes it. It’s him and Luke, resting their foreheads together outside of a restaurant where, if Ashton is correct, was just a few weeks ago. He crumples the photo in his hand before turning towards Conway, anger in his eyes. “You were bait, weren’t you? You weren’t some former spy out to get us, you were nothing but bait to get us eliminated.”

Conway nods, smirking before adding, “This is your fault though, you guys must have missed the day where they told you not to marry the enemy I'm guessing?" he lets out a chuckle, but Luke and Ashton are not laughing. He closes his mouth slowly. “Sorry, bad timing I guess. All I know is that Feldman and Sinclair contacted me personally, together I might add, telling me that two of their agents were married, something I guess is not allowed? They wanted me to pose as a big threat that needed to be taken out, promised me that I wouldn’t actually be killed. Guess the agencies have a history of trying to botch each other’s missions? They said it was bound to happen with this one so I shouldn’t worry.”

Ashton groans, kicking the dresser in the room in frustration. “I can’t believe we’ve been fucking played. Now we really need to think of something to get the agencies off of our asses or we are going to be dead before the sun rises tomorrow.” He runs a hand through his hair, biting down on his lower lip as he feels tears of frustration begin to leak out. He refuses to cry in front of the hostage, he’s not going to do it.

Luke must sense his tears because he’s already up and moving towards him, wrapping his arms around him and quieting him. “Hey, it’s alright baby, everything is going to be alright. We are strong, stronger than whatever they can throw at us. The two of us together are a fucking nightmare for them, I promise you that.  We are going to make sure they regret messing with us, and once all of this is over we can finally live the lives we’ve been lying to each other about for years.” He smirks at that sentence, making Ashton laugh and peck Luke’s lips.

“I’m usually a lot stronger than this,” Ashton admits, sniffling a bit. “Usually facing death right in the eye has never been something to get to me, but now I’m tearing up. I’m starting to think that maybe the reason I’m so scared this time is because it’s not just me that is possibly going to be killed,” He looks down towards his shoes, clearing his throat. “The thought of losing you kills me, and if I actually end up losing you to one of them I swear to God I will make them pay for it.”

Luke smiles at that, resting their foreheads together. “I love the sound of that,” he says before turning towards Conway, who has awkwardly shifted away from them. “So, where are we supposed to drop you off?”

Conway laughs, giving them a smirk before motioning towards the window. “No need to worry about that, if I’ve timed this right, and I’m pretty sure I have, my ride should be here any minute now.” Luke raises an eyebrow at this, heading towards the windows and peeking through the curtains just as a spotlight blinds him.

“You had a fucking tracker device on you didn’t you?” Ashton demands, stepping in front of Conway with a look of fury. He raises his fist to punch the guy but Luke holds his arm back, grabbing their things quickly.

“We don’t have time for this, we need to get out of here,” Luke tells him, pulling him towards one of the windows to the outside. “We can’t go out the front door, but this window is large enough to fit us through. Is there a way we can alert Mikey and Cal to get them out?”

Ashton nods, placing his ear piece back in and tapping it a few times. “Mikey, they’ve found us, think you can get out of there safely?”

“Already ahead of you,” Michael replies before there’s static. Ashton cringes at the sound before moving himself out of the window, helping Luke out before they tear off towards the alleyways. “Cal and I are already heading towards Madison’s, are you going to meet us there?”

Ashton looks over at Luke. “They got out in time, they are heading towards Madison’s again. What do you think is our best bet?”

Luke looks back towards the hotel, where the helicopters are still swarming with spotlights everywhere. “First let’s focus on hiding ourselves from the helicopters, then we can discuss our next move. I think there’s a sewer entrance not too far from here that we can hide out in.” He grabs Ashton’s hand and intertwines their fingers before leading them towards one of the alleyways, where a manhole is resting half open. “There, we can hide here until the helicopters pass.”

Both of them jump into the sewers, sewer water splashing the minute their feet hit the ground. Luke makes sure to move the manhole top over it before he climbs down, joining his husband in the filth. “Okay, not the greatest smelling hiding spot in the world but we will have to make do.”

Ashton removes one of the bandannas off his wrist, tying it around his face to cover his nose and mouth. “Want my other one?” he asks his husband, untying the other one and handing it to him. Luke gives him a warm smile in return taking the material in his hands and typing it around his face as well. “There, not only does it block out the disgusting smell of sewer, but we also look like western villains!”

Luke laughs, his dimples poking out of his cheeks and making Ashton giggle as well. It’s a nice feeling of happiness in all of the chaos around them, and Luke can’t help but wonder if they can stay this happy once they get out of this entire mess.

 _If_ they get out of this mess.

*

“So,” Michael says once Luke and Ashton have showered, washing all the smell and dirt from the sewer off of them. They are gathered together in Madison’s basement, where various cots have been set up for them to sleep for the night. It’s the safest place they can be until they figure a game plan, and both of them are just happy to have somewhere to go without someone trying to kill them. “I guess we need to figure out what our next step is, considering Plan A ended up being a fluke.”

Luke hangs his towel over the bottom of his cot, shaking his head to finish drying his damp hair. “We need to figure out how to infiltrate the agencies, see if we can negotiate something with either Feldman or Sinclair to at least spare our lives. It’s not like we’ve committed a massive crime or anything, they are only attacking us because of our marriage.”

“Trust me,” Ashton pipes in, sitting beside Luke on the cot and grabbing his hand, intertwining their fingers. “Sinclair doesn’t need a reason to search and destroy. He’ll do whatever it takes to take down someone who has wronged him or the agency, and if that involved breaking a simple rule such as this so be it. He’s ruthless.”

There’s a small silence before Calum chimes in. “What about Feldman? If those two are working together to take the two of you down, don’t you think he’d be a little needy, want to be the one calling all the shots?” He walks over to them and takes a seat beside Michael before continuing. “I’ve worked for Feldman for quite a long time, and if there is one thing I’m absolutely sure of, it’s that he is one power hungry guy. There is no way he’d team up with someone where they have to share leadership, he’d go mad.”

“So what do you think he’d do about it?” Ashton asks. “How would someone so eager to be top dog break off an alliance? Do you think he would really go and murder Sinclair just so he can be the one in charge of this entire operation?”

“I wouldn’t put it against him,” Calum admits, looking between the two of them. “From what Michael and I got before the hotel was raided, all of the operations were being held at Feldman’s. Most of the planning to get rid of the two of you has been going on behind locked doors there, no one knowing about it except for ones that were never on speaking terms with either Luke or me. Feldman knew that I would take Luke’s side in anything, so I’ve been in the dark about everything.”

“That’s probably what Sinclair did for me then,” Michael adds. “Ash and I have been friends since we were kids, he knew I wouldn’t just turn against him like that.”

“You don’t think they’d set a hit out for you guys too, do you?” Luke asks, suddenly nervous. “You two are closest to us, you two are probably known to be protecting us by now. I don’t want either one of you getting hurt because of us.”

Michael scoffs at that, waving his hand towards the blond. “I doubt they would see us as a threat. Despite us going rogue, they usually only care when its field agents that turn against them, not computer hackers and weapons specialists.” He pauses for a bit, realization dawning on him. “Shit you don’t think they would do you?”

There’s a sudden crash from upstairs, causing all four of them to jump up to their feet. The sound of various footsteps are heard, coming closer towards the basement stairs. Luke can heard someone barking orders, more marching as they search the house. “Fuck, we need to get out of here, or at least prepare ourselves to fight.” He heads towards a large safe leaning against one of the walls. “Madison stores some things to protect herself with in here and in her room upstairs. I’m sure there is something in here that can hold them off.”

While he works to open the safe, Ashton pulls the handgun he’d stashed underneath his pillow and aims it towards the stairs, Calum right behind him with his own pistol. “Cal and I will keep watch if they come down here, you two find a way to crack open that safe.”

More commotion is heard from the upstairs as crashing sounds ring through their ears, some gunshots heard as well. Michael watches as Luke stiffens as a gunshot rings out, pausing his movements on the safe. “Luke, I’m sure Madison is alright. I don’t think they would go after her.”

“Yeah they would,” Luke mumbles, continuing work on the safe. “Feldman won’t stop until he’s eliminated everything in his path, I know him. Madison may be one of his oldest workers but that doesn’t mean he’ll take pity on her just because of that.” The safe opens with a click and Luke wipes his eyes quickly. “It will be okay though, Madison knows how to defend herself. I don’t think she would go down without a fight.”

Michael smiles lightly at him before opening up the safe and grinning. “Madison is a savior, I hope she knows that.” He picks up three bulletproof vests, handing two of them over to Calum and Ashton. “Is this one of the agency’s safe houses or something because there is a shit load of stuff in this safe?”

“It’s like a mini one I guess,” Luke teases, loading the shotgun he’s taken from the safe. “Plenty of ammo in here, enough to hopefully hold them off. You ready to fight them off Mikey?”

Michael nods, taking an AK-47 from the safe and smiling. “I sure am,” he says before aiming towards the stairs as the door is torn down, gunfire hitting everywhere as various agents swarm the basement, guns poised and shooting. Luke’s amazed they are able to dodge most of the bullets, though the bullet proof vests help quite a bit.

If Luke’s being honest, he finds it hard to concentrate on the enemy. Sure, he’s one of the best gunmen in the agency and could probably take someone out easily with just one shot, but he can’t help but let his eyes wander to his husband, watching him and making sure that he’s still alive and still fighting. He takes a shot at one of the guys aiming at Ashton, bullet sinking into the guy’s skull before crumbling to the ground. It’s bloody, brutal, but he’s fighting for people’s lives here and if he has to kill people he used to work with, that’s how it has to be.

What feels to be hours later, they are standing in the aftermath. Various bodies are scattered across the basement floor, blood pooling around them onto the hardwood. All of them are breathing quite heavily as they take a look around, making sure everything is safe and there is no more. “I think that’s it,” Calum breathes, wiping the blood splattered against his face off with his sleeve, staining the white sweater he was wearing. “I think we won.”

They all nod, out of breathe and relieved when there’s the sound of a gun cocking from another part of the basement. All of them whirl around, guns aimed towards the last remaining person as they step forward, pistol in hand. A guy stands before them, older with white hair and a bruise forming around his right eye.

“You didn’t,” he spits, stepping closer to them with his gun aimed. “As long as Irwin and Hemmings are still alive, no one has won. These two are a threat to Australia, they need to be eliminated before they could kill innocent people.” He steps closer to Ashton, who is quick to pull the trigger, only to curse at the empty gun. “Thought you were smarter than that Agent Irwin, don’t you know how to count bullets so you know when you run out?” He’s quick to knock the gun out of Ashton’s hands and pull him into a tight grip, arm around Ashton’s neck and tightening. Ashton kicks and claws at the guy, but to no avail.

“I’ll shoot you,” Luke threatens, aiming his gun at Feldman’s head. “You even think about hurting him and I’ll shoot my last remaining bullet between your eyes, you know I will.” He’s not shaking, not a single ounce of him is filled with nerves about Feldman’s next move. All Luke can feel coursing through him is confidence, courage.

“Shoot me,” Feldman warns before pressing the barrel of the gun into Ashton’s temple. “And not only do you kill the one man that gave you a life, but you also kill the one who made you betray the agency and your fellow agents. Can’t you see Lucas? None of this ends happily for you, no matter what you do. I’ve already killed off Madison, it won’t be too difficult for me to kill your husband.”

Luke’s stance doesn’t change. “I mean it Feldman, you let him go or I will kill you with my bare hands.” He puts a hand out for Michael, stopping him from shooting Feldman himself. “I don’t think your new friend Sinclair would want you to kill Ashton, doesn’t he want that for himself?”

“Sinclair is currently bleeding out somewhere back at the agency,” Feldman tells him, digging the barrel of the gun further into Ashton’s temple, making him squirm more in the guy’s tight grip. “I don’t think he’ll care too much that I take care of the one person he wanted dead more than anyone.” Feldman’s finger reaches for the trigger, and Luke knows that he needs to act quickly. “Not to sound like some cliché movie villain, but do you have anything you want to say to your husband before he gets a bullet to the head?”

Luke nods, a smirk on his face. “Yeah, I do have something to say.” He lowers his weapon before yelling out, “Now!”

Ashton’s arm swings backwards into Feldman’s stomach, making the man suck in a breath before Ashton turns around, knife in his hands, cutting deeply into Feldman’s throat. Feldman begins to gag, holding his hands to his bleeding throat as he gasps for air, red tainting his pale hands as he collapses to the ground. He lets out one last breathe before his movements come to a halt, head falling to the side.

It’s silent, all four of them looking down at Feldman’s body. Ashton looks up from the bloody mess and locks eyes with his husband, who is staring at him with something Ashton cannot detect. “It’s over,” he says, stepping closer to Luke. “No one is coming after us anymore, it’s over.”

Luke let’s out the breath he didn’t know he was holding before surging forward and kissing Ashton roughly, arms wrapping around him and holding him as close to him as he possibly can. There are various pecks throughout the passionate lip locking, both of them whispering in between pecks how grateful they were to be alive, and how they were happy the other was okay.

“You know,” Calum says, clearing his throat and making them break apart. Luke still holds Ashton close to him, though his hands are now around his husband’s waist instead of his neck. “We should probably clean up down here, it looks like a butcher went to work.” He laughs, and pretty soon all of them are chuckling, just grateful to be alive.

Ashton leans forward, pressing his forehead against Luke’s and staring into the ocean blue eyes he fell in love with so many years before. “I love you.” He whispers.

Luke gives him a soft smile before pressing their lips together in a much gentler kiss than before. “I love you too.”

*

_Six Months Later_

“You’re lying to me!” Ashton shouts at his husband. “I thought we had an agreement, an agreement that said we wouldn’t lie to each other anymore!”

“ _I’m_ the one who’s lying?” Luke laughs. “You’re the one doing the lying here, don’t you even deny it!”

They are sitting in their brand new dining room, playing cards stuck to their foreheads in an outrageous game of liar’s poker. Piles of nickels and dimes are scattered in the middle of the table, both of them itching to take what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Ashton gives his husband a smirk before slamming his card down, revealing a three of hearts. The once proud smirk falls from his face immediately once he sees that Luke is holding a nine of spades, meaning he’s won the game and gets all the winnings in the middle. “Fuck!” he yells, grumbling under his breath as Luke chuckles and scoots his new found loot over to his side of the table. “I hate you.”

“Love you too baby,” Luke muses as he counts out his new found winnings. “Now let’s see, I have now won almost eight rounds of this game while you’ve only won about five. How about we just call it a game and go to bed?” He glances over at the clock hanging above their china hut and laughs. “It’s two in the morning, I’m calling it.”

“No!” Ashton demands, shuffling the deck. “I refuse to lose to a dirty rotten liar, no matter how cute he is.” He gives his husband a wink before letting out a laugh. “Okay, maybe we can call it game, but that’s only because you look like you are going to pass out right here at the table and we don’t want that.” He walks over to Luke, whose eyes are drooping and a small yawn escapes his mouth. “Want me to carry you to bed?”

Luke shakes his head, getting up from his chair and rubbing his eyes sleepily. “We don’t need a repeat of last time you tried to carry me up the stairs, you are probably just as tired as I am.” He presses a kiss to Ashton’s cheek. “C’mon, let’s go cuddle up in bed and get some rest. I don’t think Michael and Calum would take kindly to us falling asleep during our tux fittings.”

Ashton grins at that, taking Luke’s hand and leading him upstairs to their bedroom. Their newer house wasn’t quite as large as their older one was, having downsized from their once grand mansion to a nice simple two story home. After demolishing both agencies six months before, the two of them found themselves with no jobs, no home, and no plan as to how they were going to get their lives back together.

It was difficult at first, trying to figure out how to go on with life after spending a good sum of it killing for a living, but the two of them managed to find jobs that fit them well. Luke opened up a music store in downtown, where an old abandoned building was just waiting for someone to claim it and make it new. Ashton had known since the two of them had met that his husband has a knack for music and instruments, it was perfect for him. The shop does well too, enough to keep them in a pretty good spot financially.

Ashton, on the other hand, found his calling only a couple months before with Calum. Ever since the two of them had met, they had become great friends, though Ashton had assure Michael every now and then that he’ll always have the top spot. Between the two of them, Ashton and Calum taught defense classes at one of the town’s recreation centers. Calum had always been good at hand to hand combat while Ashton taught the class how to defend themselves with simple everyday items.

He didn’t want his skills to go to waste, after all.

While Luke and Ashton had rebuilt their life, tearing down the foundation of lies it was built upon in the process, Michael and Calum had decided to get married. It didn’t come as too much of a surprise, both of them so in love with each other it almost made Luke want to kill them. He didn’t though, that part of his life was over, and he was going to keep it that way.

“You know what we haven’t done in a while?” Luke mumbles once they’ve begun to undress and search for their pajamas. He closes his drawer and holds his night shirt in his hands, playing with the material. “Taken a bath together.”

Ashton hums, closing his own dresser to walk over to his husband and wrap his arms around Luke’s bare torso, hands roaming across his smooth back. “Want to go take a bath? I can go start one for us if you want.”

Luke nods, pecking Ashton’s lips and mumbling a thank you against them before heading out their room and towards the hall closet, grabbing some towels. As he grabs two towels from the top shelf, his eye catches the barrel of a pistol towards the other stack of towels, hidden haphazardly. He sighs, taking the pistol down from the stack and looking at it sadly.

“Tub’s almost full baby, do you want bubbles?” Ashton asks as he steps out into the hallway, stopping once he sees the pistol in Luke’s hands. “You weren’t supposed to find that.”

“Well I did,” Luke snaps, turning to face his husband. “Why the hell is there a handgun hidden away with our towels? I thought we agreed we wouldn’t keep this stuff hidden around the house anymore? We don’t have anyone coming after us, we don’t need to keep hiding weapons in every nook and cranny-“

“I’m scared,” Ashton whispers, slumping his shoulders in defeat. Luke’s lips form a tight line as he watches his husband run a hand through his hair and take a deep breath. “Six months ago, I almost got shot in the head because I wasn’t smart enough to count the bullets. What if Feldman was holding you at gunpoint and it was up to me to shoot him and save you? I wouldn’t have been able to, and as far as I know he could have killed you right in front of me.” He steps forward, taking the pistol gently from Luke’s hand. “I’ve been starting to have nightmares, nightmares where you die and I guess I felt better having weapons around so I could defend you if I had to.”

Luke sighs, a hand sliding up Ashton’s bare chest and cupping his neck, fingers playing with the small hairs at the nape of Ashton’s neck. “Ash, why didn’t you tell me about that? I could have helped you, I could have assured you that everything was alright.” He bites his bottom lip. “I’ve been having nightmares too you know. I have nightmares about you having your throat slit instead of Feldman’s, Calum and Michael being killed and not being able to stop it.” He swallows before saying, “Madison dying in front of me over and over again.”

Ashton purses his lips, wrapping his arms around Luke and pressing a comforting kiss to his hair. “What happened with Madison wasn’t your fault. She died trying to save your life, you know that right?” He lifts Luke’s head up, cupping his face in his hands. His blue eyes sparkle with unshed tears and Ashton rests his thumb underneath them to wipe them away. “She didn’t die in vain, she died a hero. I’m sure wherever she is right now, she’s looking at you, along with your parents, and thinking about how wonderful of a man you turned out to be.” He rests their foreheads together, eyes closed. “C’mon, we have a bath waiting for us.”

Luke nods, pulling away and setting the pistol back in the closet. He shuts the closet door gently before following Ashton towards the bathroom, stripping himself of his clothes and sliding into the tub. The warm water, combined with the soothing sensation of the added salts helps Luke relax, leaning against his husband and resting his head into the crook of Ashton’s neck. “Do you think we’ll ever forget?

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Ashton confesses, arms tight around Luke as he peppers kisses on his husband’s neck. “I guess you just need to focus on the good things that happened around the bad things.” He chuckles into Luke’s collarbone. “Remember our first real date, when we went to the carnival and I won you that gigantic stuffed penguin? We stayed until the fireworks show that night and we had our first ‘real’ kiss.”

Luke smiles at the memory, turning in Ashton’s arms to face him. “I remember you tasting like cotton candy and that nasty hot dog you insisted you had to have.” He smiles sweetly at Ashton before turning himself around, straddling Ashton. “Then afterwards you took me home and kissed me in front of the door like we were a couple of teenagers.”

“I was trying to be romantic!” Ashton laughed, hands resting on Luke’s hips. “Then there was our trip to America when we went to Santa Cruz, visiting the Boardwalk and riding roller coasters. We found a secluded part of the beach where we could enjoy ourselves without anyone walking by. After we had finished, and we were covered in sand and laughing about how uncomfortable sex on the beach really was, you told me you loved me.”

“Is there a reason for this trip down memory lane?” Luke asks, adjusting himself on Ashton’s lap so his legs were resting more comfortably.

Ashton gives him a smile before running a wet hand through Luke’s messy blond hair. “We may never forget the things we did over the past eight years. We’ve done a lot of bad things to people Luke, a lot of people that deserved it. We killed because we thought it was for the best of our country and that it would protect others from being hurt by them. In the end, we made a difference. If it weren’t for us, a lot of innocent people could have been killed. We’ve lost people throughout our missions. There isn’t a day that will pass where I won’t think about them, but if we hadn’t done our job, we would have never met.”

Luke nods, resting their foreheads together. “I almost wasn’t assigned to the Columbia mission. They were going to give it to someone else with more experience, but I’m so glad they sent me instead.” He presses a kiss to Ashton’s nose, trailing down his neck and sucking on his collarbone. “The only thing I don’t regret from my eight years of being an assassin was falling in love with you. I’ll never regret that, not even when I’m dead and gone.”

Ashton doesn’t respond to his husband’s words, only brings their lips together in a kiss. It didn’t matter how many people he killed or how many lies he had told, no matter what happened, he would always have Luke.

Always.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me at [ lucasashtons](lucasashtons.tumblr.com) :) ALSO kudos are always welcome loves :)


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